Castleman Quartet Program West Free Concert Series Comes to UW

Wyoming welcomes a new summer tradition as the Castleman Quartet Program West (CQPW) debuts its inaugural concert series, free and open to the public, this month.

The series launches Saturday, June 6, at 7:30 p.m. with a faculty and guest chamber music recital at the Buchanan Center for the Performing Arts recital hall at the University of Wyoming.

This opening performance features guest violinist John Gilbert -- professor of violin at the Texas Tech University School of Music and an active soloist and recitalist -- who has served as concertmaster for multiple American symphony orchestras.

Gilbert is joined by internationally acclaimed violinist and Tchaikovsky and Brussels competition medalist Charles Castleman, a professor at the Frost School of Music.

Rounding out the ensemble are violinist John Fadial, a professor of violin at UW, chamber musician, soloist and an experienced international orchestral concertmaster; violist Renée Skerik, an instructor at Interlochen Arts Academy, international master class presenter and former member of the Artaria String Quartet; and cellist Beth Vanderborgh, a professor of cello at UW, principal cellist of Cheyenne Symphony Orchestra, co-founder of Stanislas Sextet, former U.S. artistic ambassador and a recording artist.

The concert repertoire includes Maurice Ravel’s four-movement “Sonata for Violin and Cello,” selections from Béla Bartók’s “44 Duos for Two Violins” and Felix Mendelssohn’s “String Quartet in D Major, Op. 44 No. 1,” which features a presto con brio finale.

Following the opening showcase, the Miami-based Deering Quartet performs works by Haydn, Beethoven, Price and Montgomery Thursday, June 11, at 7:30 p.m. in the Performing Arts recital hall.

Next, in the recital hall, is a viola faculty recital, with Allyson Dawkins, viola, and Jiwon Han, piano, Saturday, June 13, at 7:30 p.m. The program will feature Schubert’s “Arpeggione Sonata,” as well as works by Rota, Ravel and Rachmaninov.

The concert series then extends into the community Monday, June 15, with daytime and evening events. The CQPW Young Artists perform at the Laramie County Library in Cheyenne at noon, followed at 6 p.m. by a musical cocktail hour at Backwards Distillery in Laramie with the Deering Quartet.

The young artist chamber groups then will perform at noon Tuesday, June 16, at the Albany County Library in Laramie.

Performances return to the Performing Arts recital hall for a second faculty chamber music recital Wednesday, June 17, at 7:30 p.m. The program then highlights its student participants with the CQPW young artist sonata concert series Thursday and Friday, June 18-19, at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, June 20, at 3 p.m., before concluding the entire series at 7:30 p.m. with the CQPW young artist chamber music finale.

Founded in 1970 by legendary violinist Castleman, the Castleman Quartet Program has earned an international reputation for cultivating exceptional young chamber musicians through intensive study, collaboration and performance. UW music faculty members Vanderborgh and Fadial are excited to bring the prestigious summer training program to Wyoming for the first time, organizers say.