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A Six-Week Musical Bonanza
Written By: Marlene Osteen | Issue: May 2023
In venues both grand and intimate, the Highlands-Cashiers Chamber Music Festival spreads its marvelous sound across the Plateau.
Rasa String Quartet
Thanks to the thriving Highlands-Cashiers Chamber Music Festival the soundscape on the Plateau is as bountiful and luxuriant as the scenery.
Highly regarded for the virtuosity and artistic excellence of its performers, the festival annually brings together the country’s finest musicians to play chamber music in all its forms. Along the way, it has immeasurably enhanced the cultural environment of Highlands and Cashiers, enriching the lives of its visitors and citizens.
For 2023, in a six-week (July 1 through August 6) bonanza of top chamber music talent, musicians from renowned conservatories, orchestras and companies will come together to play their favorite works. They will perform in grand places – the Martin Lipscomb Theater – as well as smaller and more intimate ones tucked in spaces across the community.
So, hold on to your seat! Ushering in the 42nd season of the Highlands Cashiers Chamber Music Festival is the enthralling Rasa String Quartet in a program called Painting with Music. On June 25, the Boston-based chamber group brings a string-fueled celebration of the impressionist music of Debussy and Ravel to the Ann Lea Gallery in Cashiers.
Since their founding at the New England Conservatory of Music in 2019, its members – cellist Eunghee Cho, violist Claudia Do Minh Ramos, and violinists Maura Shawn Scanlin and Kiyoshi Hayashi – have toured the US, performing repertoire from the classical, world and folk genres.
Speaking for the quartet, Hayashi talked to Executive Director Nancy Gould Aaron about their upcoming appearance: “Rasa String Quartet has had the amazing opportunity to perform at the Highlands-Cashiers Chamber Music Festival for multiple years and it has always been an absolutely inspiring, meaningful, and fun experience. We have especially enjoyed fostering the incredible relationships we have developed, working with the local schools through their education initiatives, exploring the beauty, nature, and culture that Highlands has to offer, and interacting with the lively, supportive, and warm audiences!
The cost for Painting with Music is $80 per person. Call (828) 526-9060 for reservations.
Two days later, on June 27, the Rasa String Quartet will find their way into an even more informal setting at the Highlands Wine Shoppe in a free program entitled Music & Wine from Around the World. Attendees can expect a taste of musical offerings from France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and America paired with wines from the same countries.
