Renowned String Quartet to Collaborate with Idyllwild Arts Academy Orchestra

Members of the Idyllwild Arts Academy Orchestra are planning to collaborate in December with the critically-acclaimed string quartet ETHEL, who are based in New York City.

The quartet musicians - Ralph Farris, viola, Dorothy Lawson, cello, Kip Jones, violin, and Tema Watstein, violin - are scheduled to conduct workshops, residency, rehearsals, and collaborative classes at the Idyllwild Academy from Dec. 6 to Dec. 9, according to an ETHEL representative.

The residency is expected to culminate in two free concerts, Saturday Dec. 8 and Sunday Dec. 9.

ETHEL formed in 1998 and is billed as "America's premier post-classical string quartet." A New Yorker magazine review described ETHEL as "vital and brilliant."

The quartet's name came from the original members' fondness for the film "Shakespeare in Love," in which a fictional William Shakespeare tried to work with a script he'd been handed, "Romeo and Ethel, The Pirate's Daughter."

The musicians liked the unpretentious sound of "Ethel" and adopted the name as their own. For more information about ETHEL visit www.ethelcentral.org.

Idyllwild Arts Academy is billed as "a disciplined college preparatory program for grades 9-12 and post-graduates - along with world-class training in creative writing, dance, film & video, interdisciplinary arts, music, theatre, and visual art."

For more information about Idyllwild Arts Academy visit www.idyllwildarts.org.

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