Youthful Avalon String Quartet chosen
for faculty residency in music

Members of the Avalon String Quartet, who will become NIU’s new faculty string quartet in residence in August, are preparing to put their stamp on campus and on Chicago with free concerts Feb. 25 and 26.

But the Avalon’s solidly Generation X musicians want audiences to know they aren’t trying to replace the Vermeer Quartet: Indeed, none of the four musicians in their late 20s to mid-30s was alive when the Vermeer began its residency some 38 years ago.

They’re simply bringing a new – and evolving – voice to NIU string music.

It comes complete with classic do-it-yourself and GenX attitudes: They’ve booked some of their own gigs, found good management, loaded their own van and traveled America’s highways, all in search of some stability. And after a dozen years of hard work, and maybe some uncertainty, they’ve written their own ticket.

The new era begins at 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 25, at Buntrock Hall in the Chicago Symphony Center, 220 S. Michigan Ave., and continues at 8 p.m. Monday, Feb. 26, at the NIU Music Building’s Boutell Memorial Concert Hall. Call (815) 753-1546 for more information.

“It’s all very humbling,” said Tony Devroye, violist. “But we don’t feel like we are trying to be the Vermeer Quartet or even the next Vermeer Quartet. The string quartet landscape has changed so much since they were established, and there really is never going to be another group like the Vermeer Quartet, neither musically nor professionally.”

“We’re just trying to do what we think we do well,” added violinist Blaise Magnière, a native of France. “We have to find our own voice – every group has to find its own voice – and eventually evolve with time and keep evolving.”

The Avalon Quartet, formed in 1995 at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, will come to NIU thanks to generous financial support from an anonymous donor.

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