By Shelly Schweizer

A conundrum facing organizations that promote and produce classical music programming is satisfying established audiences who are sophisticated and educated about classical music while simultaneously cultivating newer, younger audiences and providing an introduction to the genre without intimidating newcomers or making them feel ignorant.

By bringing New Zealand String Quartet to town on November 9, Music Worcester hopes to bridge a gap between those who are well versed in classical music and those who are curious and open to expanding their cultural horizons.

Midge Hamilton, Music Worcester’s director of marketing and educational outreach, said that attending performances by smaller chamber ensembles, trios and quartets provides a great introduction to the world of classical music.

“It’s not as intimidating. It’s a totally different atmosphere than a performance by a gigantic symphony orchestra. That can be kind of daunting,” she said.

New Zealand String Quartet is comprised of violinists Helen Pohl and Douglas Beilman, cellist Rolf Gjelsten, and Gillian Ansell on viola. The foursome has toured extensively in New Zealand, Europe, Asia and North America and participates regularly in a number of international chamber music festivals, including the Mt. Monadnock Music Festival.

In addition to their careers as prolific performers and recording artists, the members of New Zealand String Quartet are teachers. Since 1991, they’ve been the Quartet-in-Residence at Victoria University of Wellington, now the New Zealand School of Music, and have served as artist/teachers-in-residence at the Banff Center in Canada, Quartet Fest West, and the Quartet Program at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania.

New Zealand String Quartet have garnered serious accolades for their imaginative performances by creating programs which include works by classical composers like Mozart, Beethoven and Debussy, as well as those by contemporary composers from New Zealand and the Pacific Rim. Their concerts also feature guest performances by jazz artists and indigenous musicians.

“They have impressive chops. Their playing credentials and artistic skills levels are really fabulous,” said Hamilton. “They have mixed it up with different genres. It’s very appealing.”

In their first Worcester appearance, the quartet will perform works by Mendelssohn, Bartok and Beethoven. And true to their reputation as champions of contemporary composers from down under, the group will play New Zealander Ross Harris’s String Quartet No. 3, “Blood Red Roses.”

“We are thrilled and excited to bring this vibrant young string quartet and all that they represent to Worcester,” Hamilton said. “Music Worcester brings in different groups and genres in dance and music. This is one of the ones I’m excited about personally.”

In addition to the quartet’s reputation for masterful, creative performances, the group has a strong fan base and has earned an enormous amount of respect from fellow musicians. Hamilton attributes their devoted following to the fact that performances by the New Zealand String Quartet provide an intimate, more personal forum for enjoying classical music.

“It’s not as if they were a huge orchestra. Therefore, it becomes a more personal relationship, and people go to see them again and again. It brings a different kind of atmosphere to a concert, as among friends. They’re very charismatic. They are also really nice people and it shows in their music.”

www.musicworcester.org, (508) 754-3231
New Zealand String Quartet
Friday, November 9
8 p.m. Performance, 7 p.m. Pre-concert Talk
Tuckerman Hall, corner of Salisbury and Tuckerman Streets