When:  Sunday, February 16, 2020 at 3:00 PM
Venue: Historic Nassau County Courthouse
416 Centre Street – Fernandina Beach, FL – Directions…

The phenomenal Dover Quartet, our Quartet-in-Residence, catapulted to international stardom following a stunning sweep of the 2013 Banff Competition. Named the Cleveland Quartet Award-winner and honored with the coveted Avery Fisher Career Grant, the Dover has become one of the most in-demand ensembles in the world. The Quartet’s rise from up-and-coming young ensemble to occupying a spot at the top of their field has been “practically meteoric” (Strings). With its burnished warmth, incisive rhythms, and natural phrasing, the Quartet’s distinctive sound has helped confirm its status as “the young American string quartet of the moment” (New Yorker). The Dover serves as quartet-in-residence for the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University, Chamber Music Northwest, Artosphere and Peoples’ Symphony in New York. The Dover also is the first-ever quartet-in-residence for the Kennedy Center. The ensemble will perform more than 100 concerts around North America during the 2019 season.

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A violist of international reputation, Roberto Díaz is president and CEO of the Curtis Institute of Music, following in the footsteps of renowned soloist/directors such as Josef Hofmann, Efrem Zimbalist, and Rudolf Serkin.
As a soloist, Mr. Díaz collaborates with leading conductors of our time on stages throughout North and South America, Europe, and Asia. He has also worked directly with important 20th- and 21st-century composers, including Krzysztof Penderecki, whose viola concerto he has performed many times with the composer on the podium and whose double concerto he premiered in the United States; and Edison Denisov who invited Mr. Díaz to Moscow to work on his viola concerto. Ricardo Lorenz, Roberto Sierra, and Jennifer Higdon have all written concerti for Mr. Díaz.

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Christopher Rex, the Festival’s artistic and general director, retired as principal cellist of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in 2018 after serving in that position for nearly 40 years. He performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Eugene Ormandy before joining the Atlanta Symphony.

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