SF CHRONICLE: Cypress Quartet says so long

Source: www.sfgate.com
January 27, 2016
Jesse Hamlin

After 20 productive years, San Francisco’s noted Cypress String Quartet is disbanding, playing its farewell concert June 26 in the Green Room of the War Memorial Building.

The globe-trotting foursome, whose accomplishments include its innovative Call & Response program — they commissioned and premiered works by contemporary composers responding to familiar chamber pieces — decided to call it quits “after a great deal of reflection and discussion,” according to its announcement. “The quartet agrees that it is the right time for them to move on and explore new artistic territories as individuals.” The group, which consists of violinists Cecily Ward and Tom Stone, viola player Ethan Filner and cellist Jennifer Kloetzel, caps its career with the release of its final recording, the complete Beethoven quartets, on Avie Records in May. And to thank the supportive hometown crowd, it plans to play all 16 of those quartets during a monthlong series of performances at venues across San Francisco.