EarRelevant Staff | 8 AUG 2023
Atlanta, GA— Violist Joseph Skerik has joined the Vega String Quartet as its newest member, replacing founding violist Yinzi Kong who leaves the Quartet after over 30 years to pursue other musical adventures. Yinzi played her final concert as a member of the Vega Quartet at the Highlands-Cashiers Chamber Music Festival in July.
Born in 1999 and raised in Michigan, Skerik studied at the Yale School of Music, the Cleveland Institute, the Paris Conservatory, and the Interlochen Arts Academy. He has performed at Festivals, including the Ravinia Institute, Heifetz Chamber Music Seminar, Highlands-Cashiers Festival, Perlman Music Program, Aspen Music Festival, and the Lake George Music Festival. Joseph is a Young Arts Merit Violist, a prize-winner at the American Viola Society Competition, and was most recently awarded the 3rd prize at the Oskar Nedbal Viola Competition in Prague. He co-founded Viridian Strings, a chamber music series in Northwest Lower Michigan, and recently appeared at the 2023 Vivace Music Foundation in Wilmington, North Carolina.
Skerik was one of three finalists in the spring who each came to Atlanta for a week of intensive rehearsals, teaching, and concerts with the Vega Quartet. He moves to Atlanta this month to get started, and will play his first concerts as a member of the Quartet in a few weeks at the legendary Kneisel Hall Festival in Blue Hill, Maine, with his fellow Vega musicians, violinists Emily Daggett Smith and Jessica Shuang Wu, and cellist Guang Wang.
“We’re all thrilled with Joe and can’t wait to introduce him to the Atlanta community,” said William Ransom, Artistic Director of Emory Chamber Music Society of Atlanta (ECMSA), which sponsors the Vega Quartet’s residency at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, which is dedicated to “creating new generations of passionate and educated music lovers who will cherish and support this great art forever.”
ECMSA is the largest and most active organization of its kind in the Southeast. ■
EXTERNAL LINKS:
- Vega String Quartet: vegaquartet.com
- Emory Chamber Music Society of Atlanta: chambermusicsociety.emory.edu
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