Saint Helens String Quartet Wins Jack Straw Residency
Jack Straw Productions is a community-based resource for the audio arts, providing Northwest artists access to the state of the art studio production facilities. Since 1994, Jack Straw has selected eight artists each year to receive 20 hours of studio recording and production time with a Jack Straw engineer through their Artist Support Program. Congratulations to the Saint Helens String Quartet, who was selected from over 60 applicants to participate in this special program.
The Saint Helens String Quartet is the quartet in residence at Cornish College of the Arts and includes Michael Lim, violin, Adrianna Hulscher, violin, Michael Lieberman, viola and Paige Stockley Lerner, cello. The Quartet plans to use their 20 hours to record their first CD and to re-record a piece written for the Quartet by former music department chair Laura Kaminsky titled Transfigurations II: Music for a Changing World. They also plan to record Swing Low Variations, a piece written for the Quartet in 2004 by Ken Benshoof through a grant from 4Culture. Swing Low Variations will be included in Wheat; a documentary film by Warner Blake about the vanishing wheat families of Eastern Washington.
In addition to the 20 hours of studio time, the Saint Helens String Quartet will be able to participate in Jack Straw's Meet the Artist evening where the group performs and then discuss completed work with an audience.
