For Immediate Release

QUARTET SAN FRANCISCO FEATURED
AT 18TH ANNUAL JEWISH MUSIC FESTIVAL

Quartet San Francisco plays Thursday, March 27 and Sunday March 30
Tickets range from $12 - $21, depending on concert

SAN FRANCISCO, CA (March 1, 2003) - Virtuoso violinist and composer Jeremy Cohen and his ensemble premiere an original suite for string quartet, with influences ranging from cantorial chants to Yiddish theater. The program also includes Between the Sacred & the Profane by contemporary Israeli composer Menachem Wiesenberg, and works by George Gershwin, Louis Gruenberg, Joseph Horovitz and Salamone Rossi.

• Thursday March 27, 2:00pm – Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, Berkeley
• Thursday March 27, 7:30pm – St. John’s Presbyterian Church, Berkeley
• Sunday, March 30, 2:00pm - Contra Costa Jewish Community Center, Walnut Creek

The Musicians of Quartet San Francisco

Quartet San Francisco

Jeremy Cohen, Violin

Joel Cohen, Cello

Dawn Harms, Violin

Emily Onderdonk, Viola

A former student of Itzhak Perlman and Anne Crowden, Jeremy Cohen’s eclectic style reflects his respect for musicians ranging from Perlman and Fritz Kreisler to Joe Venuti and Eddie South. Jeremy has performed as a soloist with numerous symphony orchestras, and as studio orchestra concertmaster on recordings with Linda Ronstadt, Ray Charles, Aaron Neville, Tracy Chapman, and Cleo Laine. He appeared on Carlos Santana’s Grammy-winning CD Supernatural and new Shaman CD, as well as on the original Star Wars compilation CD with John Williams. He is currently concertmaster for the San Francisco production of The Producers, was solo violinist for Forever Tango, and has toured and recorded with the Turtle Island String Quartet. For more information on Jeremy Cohen, including his 2003 concert schedule and recent CD recordings, visit his website at www.violinjazz.com.

Boston-based Joel Cohen had his early musical training in the Bay Area with Irene Sharp and Margaret Rowell. He was co-principal cellist with the Oakland Symphony from 1979 to 1985. Joel lived in Vienna for twelve years, playing and touring internationally with the Vienna Chamber Orchestra. Since returning to the U.S. in 1997, he has performed with orchestras and chamber groups including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the National Lyric Opera, and the Rhode Island Philharmonic. He is a founder of the Zephyr Chamber Orchestra, a conductorless ensemble playing unusual 20th and 21st century repertoire.

Violinist, violist, chamber musician and conductor Dawn Harms, earned degrees from the New England Conservatory of Music (studying with Dorothy Delay and Josef Gingold) and State University at Stony Brook, New York. For ten years she was first violinist with the Harrington String Quartet at West Texas A & M. A member of the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and the New Century Chamber Orchestra, she also performs as concertmaster with the Santa Fe Pro Musica Chamber Orchestra and the Napa Valley Symphony. She is the first violinist of the Harmida Piano Trio and the founding member of the Elixir String Quartet. She collaborated with her cousin Tom Waits on his latest recording, and serves on the music faculty at Stanford University.

A San Francisco native, Emily Onderdonk received her Bachelor's and Master's degrees at the Manhattan School of Music, and continued with post-graduate studies at Boston University and the New England Conservatory of Music. As principal violist, she performed and toured with the Lyon National Opera in France, recording CDs of Offenbach, Donizetti, Werther, Massenet and Puccini with Kiri Te Kanawa, Dawn Upshaw, Anne Sophie Von Otter and Jerry Hadley. Dawn has performed with the New York Philharmonic, the San Francisco Symphony and the San Francisco Opera, and was principal violist with the New York City National Opera Company and the Berkeley Symphony.

For more about the quartet, including contact and booking information, visit the quartet's new website, www.quartetsanfrancisco.com.