Artist-Inspired Music

Astring quartet named for an American impressionist painter will perform next week at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.

Cassatt String Quartet, an all-female group formed in 1985, will perform Oct. 4 in the Great Hall at the museum. Members include first violinist Muneko Otani, second violinist Jennifer Leshnower, violist Sarah Adams and cellist Nicole Johnson. The quartet is based in Manhattan and performs traditional repertoire for string quartet as well as contemporary music by living composers, Leshnower, 46, says.

The group will play a world premiere piece at the museum written by living composer Bruce Adolphe. It will first be performed Oct. 3 during a short residency at the University of Central Arkansas. Adolphe wrote the piece for the quartet and decided to use painter Mary Cassatt’s life as inspiration for the work, Leshnower says. It was co-commissioned by the University of Central Arkansas and Crystal Bridges Museum.

“Mary Cassatt: Scenes From Her Life” is a piece written in three movements. The first movement is a “musical dialogue/argument betweenher and her father,” and the characters are represented by the instruments, Leshnower says. The second movement, which is called “Mother, Child, Painting,” is inspired by her mother-and-child artworks.

“She herself never had children,” Leshnower says.

It is a lyrical movement with a sadness underpinning the lines, she adds. The final movement, “Degas, Paris,” is “carefree and festive in feel,” she says. “It’s very much inspired by jazz music.”

She really enjoys playing the third movement because of the “jazzy” feel. “As a string quartet player, we don’t often play jazzstyle music.”

During the event, Adolphe will be speaking about his work and the inspiration behind it.

Leshnower adds that he selected images by Mary Cassatt that willbe presented while the quartet performs. Meeting a composer and hearing him speak “makes more of a connection for the listener,” she says.

The quartet will also play Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 8 and Ravel’s String Quartet.

Leshnower says her experience in the Cassatt String Quartet has been endlessly rewarding, both musically and socially. She feels very fortunate to have this job, noting that it is rare to make a living as a member of a string quartet.

Leshnower has been playing violin for 40 years.

“I like the endless challenge that it offers,” she says.

She can always practice more, learn a new piece or sound better, she adds.

“You never attain a final goal.”