CDSQ Appoints New Member - Sam Weiser
Columbus, OH – Carpe Diem String Quartet, embarking on its 18th season, announces the immediate appointment of Sam Weiser as the quartet's first violinist.
Sam Weiser, violin, formerly a member of the award-winning Del Sol Quartet, is a lifelong chamber musician and advocate of contemporary music.
Sam has performed all over the country, from the Herbst Theater and the Kennedy Center to a raft floating along the Yampa River. He has premiered over 150 new works by composers such as Vijay Iyer, Huang Ruo, and Chen Yi. Sam is the violinist in sfSound, a member of One Found Sound, and the Assistant Concertmaster of the California
Symphony. He studied with Ian Swensen, Lucy Chapman, James Buswell, and Patinka Kopec. He holds bachelors’ degrees from Tufts University (computer science) and the New England Conservatory (violin), as well as a master’s degree from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (chamber music).
Korine Fujiwara, CDSQ’s violist and Executive Director offered these comments: “During our thoughtful search over the last eight months, we auditioned and interviewed some wonderful and exciting candidates. However, we knew immediately that we had found our new partner in Sam… (Scroll down for more)
He has an adventurous and multilingual musical spirit and his warm and compelling personality both onstage and off engages everyone around him and draws them into the magical musical storytelling world created on the stage. We are thrilled that Sam has joined us in this new chapter of the quartet’s journey.”
The quartet’s 2023-2024 season, “Forward in all directions” begins November 4 and 5, 2023 in Columbus, Ohio. This season features works by Paul Wianko, Emilie Mayer, Joaquín Turina, Brahms, Mendelssohn, Beethoven, Arensky, Ravel, and Dohnanyi. Carpe Diem will also present world premieres by Akshaya Avril Tucker, Reza Vali, Mark Lomax II, and Paul Frucht as part of their “15 for 15” commissioning project.
One of the most unique and sought-after chamber ensembles on the concert stage today, the Carpe Diem String Quartet was founded in 2005 by Charles Wetherbee and Korine Fujiwara. The quartet has gone on to become a boundary-breaking, award-winning ensemble that has earned widespread critical and audience acclaim for its innovative programming and electrifying performances. With programming that reflects its passions for Romani, tango, folk, pop, rock, and jazz-inspired music alongside the traditional string quartet repertoire, Carpe Diem has defied easy classification while quickly becoming one of America’s premier “indie” string quartets. Carpe Diem has recorded the complete cycle of the nine string quartets of Sergei Taneyev for Naxos, as well as the complete string quartets of Jonathan Leshnoff, Korine Fujiwara’s string quartets Fiddle Suite: Montana and Entangled Banks, Reza Vali’s The Book of Calligraphy and Longing, two CDs with singer/guitarist Willy Porter, Anansi and the Sky God with John Gunther, saxophone, the complete string quartets of Richard Jordan Smoot, Bruce Wolosoff’s Songs without Words, Quintets No. 1 and 2 for Mandolin and String Quartet by mandolinist Jeff Midkiff, and Dances of the Yogurt Maker - Music for String Quartet and Turkish Folk Percussion by Erberk Eryilmaz. Recent honors for Carpe Diem recordings include the Gold Prize at the Global Music Awards (Midkiff and Eryilmaz), and inclusion as part of producer Judith Sherman’s 2022 Grammy Award Win (Eryilmaz).
Carpe Diem String Quartet is represented by Great Lakes Performing Artist Associates
For more information, visit greatlakespaa.org or contact glpaaoffice@gmail.com