When the high point of your week is going to a concert whose group name doesn’t involve a formula like “The Verbing Nouns” and whose music is only heard on one local radio station (NPR), you’re either having a pretty bad week or they’re really good. I had a great week. The Leipzig String Quartet recently came to Simpson University and performed three pieces. They’re a world-renowned group which makes me wonder why they’re here, but never mind that. They were founded twenty years ago in Leipzig and have been performing all over Europe and North America since then. They’ve released dozens of recordings over a wide variety of styles. Most of that doesn’t mean a whole lot to the average college student so I’ll sum it up here. They were here, they were good. That’s all I can say. Actually I can say a lot more so I will.
I’m no music major – my appreciation of music is restricted to sitting in my room with headphones on flailing my arms around pretending to drum along – but even I could enjoy the subtleties of this group’s performance. Out of the three pieces they performed, my personal favorite was “Eight Colors for String Quartet” by Tan Dun. The emotion expressed in this piece was phenomenal and the prevalent use of atonality was powerful and performed excellently. Even if you don’t consider yourself a fan of “old person music,” I would heartily recommend you come to this concert; it’s well worth the time to hear musicians who are truly skilled at their art. Unfortunately, it’s in the past and since we can’t just nuke the island and start over (LOST reference), I can only advise you to come to concerts here in the future if they are anything like this fantastic night of music. Future events are listed below.
Ash Wednesday Sacred Song Concert
February 17 at 7:00pm
Free
Jazz Combo, Chamber Winds and Handbell Concert
April 14 at 7:00pm
Free
Simpson Chorale/Trinity Repertory Singers Spring Concert
April 16 at 7:30pm
Free
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