PUHI — The all-Canadian Afiara String Quartet brings its violins, bows and engaging, authentic stage presence to Kaua‘i Sunday. Sponsored by the Kaua‘i Concert Association, the performance runs from 3 to 6 p.m. at the Kaua‘i Community College Performing Arts
PUHI — The all-Canadian Afiara String Quartet brings its violins, bows and engaging, authentic stage presence to Kaua‘i Sunday.
Sponsored by the Kaua‘i Concert Association, the performance runs from 3 to 6 p.m. at the Kaua‘i Community College Performing Arts Center in Puhi.
Formed in 2006, the Afiara String Quartet takes its name from the Spanish “fiar,” meaning “to trust,” a basic element vital to the depth and joy of its music-making, according to the group’s website.
In 2008, the quartet was the winner of the Concert Artists Guild International Competition and won the Young Canadian Musicians Award in 2010.
The group consists of violinists Yuri Cho, David Samuel and Valerie Li, along with Adrian Fung on cello.
Cho received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from The Juilliard School, where she studied with Dorothy Delay, Naoko Tanaka and Masao Kawasaki as a recipient of the Dorothy Starling Violin Scholarship and the Jean Doyle Loomis Award, according to her bio. She was a featured soloist with the Seoul Royal Symphony in Korea and Japan, as well as the Concordia Symphony Orchestra in Canada.
Samuel received his bachelor’s and master’s from The Juilliard School under the Nathan Gordon Scholarship and the Jerome L. Greene Fellowship, as well as the Artist Certificate in Chamber Music from the San Francisco Conservatory. He has performed in Canada, the U.S. and more than a dozen countries in Europe, states his biography.
Li received her bachelor’s from the Peabody Conservatory, her master’s from the New England Conservatory and has performed at the Kennedy Center, Carnegie, Jordan and Strathmore halls.
She has played with the Baltimore and Singapore Symphonies and served as Concertmaster of the New England Conservatory Philharmonic, the Peabody Symphony Orchestra and with the National Youth Orchestra of Canada.
Finally, Fung graduated from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and received performance diplomas from McGill University and Mannes College.
He has given solo recitals in New York’s Carnegie Hall, the Goethe Institute, Montreal’s Pollack Hall, the Toronto Centre of the Performing Arts, the Living Arts Centre and Taiwan’s National Concert Hall, according to his biography.
Tickets for the Afiara String Quartet’s performance Sunday cost $30 for adults, $10 for students and can be purchased in advance at www.kauai-concert.org or by calling 245-7464. For more information about the ensemble visit www.afiara.com.
