Returning to the Lakewood Stage

Grammy Award Winning Takács Quartet

with Pianist, Marc-André Hamelin

TheLakewood Cultural Center is pleased to announce the return engagement of the Takács Quartet,accompanied this year by pianist Marc-André Hamelin in a performance ofSchumann's Piano Quintet at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, September 18 in the intimate310-seat theater (470 S. Allison Parkway at Wadsworth and Alameda). Tickets are$26.00 for adults and are available by calling 303-987-7845, online at www.lakewood.orgor at theLakewood Cultural Center Box Office, 470 S. Allison Parkway. Senior, studentand group discounts available. Free parking on site.

Recognizedas one of the front ranking chamber ensembles in the world, the Grammy AwardWinning Takács Quartet, Edward Dusinberre, violin, Károly Schranz, violin, Geraldine Walther, viola, and András Fejér, cello, creates performances ofvirtuosic technique, intense immediacy and consistently burnished tone. Theprogram also includes Bartok's String Quartet No. 2 and Mozart's String Quartet inD major K.575.

Montréalnative Marc-André Hamelin is internationally renowned for his musical virtuosity andrefined pianism. Recent highlights include the world premiere of Kevin Volans'Piano Concerto for his debut with the San Francisco Symphony, led by MichaelTilson Thomas; Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2 for a return to the Detroit Symphonywith Kwame Ryan; Mendelssohn Piano Concerto No. 1 with Sir Neville Marriner andthe Montreal Symphony; Messiaen's "Turangalila" with the PittsburghSymphony and Sir Andrew Davis; Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5 with theVancouver Symphony led by Tania Miller, and Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2 toclose the Kansas City Symphony's season with Michael Stern. ??This spring Mr.Hamelin's was the recipient of the 2008 Juno Award Winner in the ClassicalAlbum of the Year (solo or chamber ensemble) category for Alkan Concerto forSolo Piano. Underexclusive contract with Hyperion Records, his recent two-disc set of HaydnPiano Sonatas was named on "Best of 2007" lists in the Boston Globe,the New York Times, and the New Yorker magazine, and is nominated for a"Best Solo Instrumental" Grammy.

Additionalawards and recognition include a double nomination in 2001 for the epic BusoniConcerto with the CBSO under Mark Elder and the Chopin-Godowsky, Mr. Hamelinwas the only classical artist to play live at the Grammy Awards. He received anotherGrammy nomination in 2002 for his recording featuring the works of Alkan. Hisdouble album of the complete Chopin-Godowsky Etudes won the 2000 GramophoneInstrumental Award. In 2005 Mr. Hamelin was honored to be made an Officerof the Order of Canada and a Chevalier de l'Ordre national du Québec and inDecember 2006, he was awarded the Preis der Deutsche Schallplattenkritik, inspecial acknowledgement of his complete body of recorded works.

Basedin Boulder at the University of Colorado, the Takács Quartet performs ninetyconcerts a year worldwide, performing throughout Europe as well as inAustralia, New Zealand, Japan and Korea. The quartet members are AssociateArtists at the South Bank Centre in London, performing several concerts thereeach year. In 2008-2009 the quartet will build its London programs around themusic of Schumann, culminating in a recording of the piano quintet withMarc-André Hamelin in May 2009. Other highlights of the 2008-2009 seasoninclude the world premiere and performances throughout Europe of a quartetwritten for them by Wolfgang Rihm, three concerts to celebrate the re-openingof New York's Alice Tully Hall, featuring the complete Bartok Cycle and a tourto Japan and Korea in June 2009. In a North American tour the quartet willcontinue its collaboration with the Hungarian folk ensemble Muzsikas and singerMarta Sebestyen.

TheQuartet's multi-award winning recordings include the Late Quartets by Beethovenwhich in 2005 won Disc of the Year and Chamber Award from BBC Music Magazine, aGramophone Award and a Japanese Record Academy Award. Their recordings of theearly and middle Beethoven quartets collected a Grammy, another GramophoneAward, a Chamber Music of America Award and two further awards from theJapanese Recording Academy. Of their performances and recordings of the LateQuartets, the Cleveland Plain Dealer wrote "The Takács might play thisrepertoire better than any quartet of the past or present."

In 2005the Takács Quartet signed a contract with Hyperion Records, for whom theirfirst recording, of Schubert's D804 and D810 was released in 2006. A discfeaturing Brahms' Piano Quintet with Stephen Hough was released to greatacclaim in November 2007. Brahms Quartets Op. 51 and Op. 67 will be released infall