PMP ALUMNI Recitals
Punchline Quartet
February 12, 2024
7:00 PM
Sarasota Art Museum, Thomas McGuire Hall | 1001 S Tamiami Trail, Sarasota, FL 34236
The Punchline Quartet will perform February 13 at 5:30pm.
The Sarasota Garden Club
1131 Boulevard of the Arts, Sarasota, FL 34236
Due to cooler temperatures, the recital was moved from the Oval. Chairs provided. Seating for 100 people. First come, first served. Doors open at 5:00pm.
Program
Ludwig van Beethoven String Quartet Op. 18 No. 6 in B flat Major
Antonín Dvořák American String Quartet
Caroline Shaw Entr’acte
PMP Alumni are young, professional emerging artists who present outreach programs and recitals in public venues, retirement centers, private communities, places of worship and public schools throughout Sarasota and Manatee counties. These recitals delight audiences with energetic performances by these outstanding artists who perform chamber quartet repertoire in smaller settings, providing a unique opportunity to interact with them through Q&A sessions and post-concert receptions.
About the Punchline Quartet
Combining musical mastery with a touch of wit, the Punchline Quartet delivers engaging performances that crescendo to a captivating musical punchline. Formed in 2022 by violinists Kate Arndt, Ria Honda, violist Sarah Sung, and cellist Elena Ariza, the Punchline Quartet actively sows the seeds of creativity, passion, and lifelong learning amongst the younger generation.
The quartet members have individually been a part of the PMP community as far back as 2010, and have found their way together in the fall of 2022 with the shared passion for chamber music and community engagement. Though the quartet members are not based in the same city anymore, their shared passion has reunited them at PMP Suncoast to pursue what they love most.
The Punchline Quartet understands the importance of making music an approachable realm, and an experience that is reflective of today’s world and audience. Comprising four women, they felt it most suitable to champion Caroline Shaw’s music, alongside the classic Beethoven and Dvorak.
Violinist Kate Arndt is from Boston, Massachusetts. Kate is a member of the Vera Quartet and has performed with the group at Carnegie Hall, New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, Curtis Institute of Music, University of New Orleans, Indian Hill Music Chamber Series, Music from Angel Fire, and the Colorado Music Festival. Among other programs, Kate is an alumna of the Perlman Music Program and the Sarasota Music Festival, where she was featured in 2019 as a guest soloist with the festival orchestra. She holds Masters degrees from Yale in both Music and Musical Arts and completed her undergraduate studies at New England Conservatory of Music under Miriam Fried. Kate is currently pursuing her Doctor of Musical Arts degree under Ani Kavafian. Kate’s academic interests focus on studying the contributions of women in classical music, an area she hopes to expand through featuring works by female composers in future performances.
Violinist Ria Honda was recently named a 2022 Rohm Foundation Scholarship recipient. She has been was awarded the fourth prize at the 2021 Irving M. Klein International String Competition, won first prize at the MTNA Competition and DePaul Concerto Festival, and was named a YoungArts Winner in 2017 and 2018. A passionate chamber musician, Ria won 1st prize in the M-Prize International Chamber Music Competition and received the silver medal at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. She currently plays on a Giovanni Battista Guadagnini, Turin 1779, on generous loan from the Ryuji Ueno Foundation. Through the Columbia-Juilliard Exchange, Ria received a B.A. in Economics in 2022 from Columbia University and is currently a second-year M.M. candidate at the Juilliard School under the tutelage of Li Lin.
Australian-Korean violist Sarah Sung takes music beyond the stages of Carnegie Hall and the Sydney Opera House, traveling globally to diverse and marginalized communities since the age of eight. Together with Timothy Chooi and Drake Driscoll, Sarah is a cofounder of VISION Collective, an initiative that builds meaningful relationships with and among refugees by sharing and exchanging music between diverse communities. In recognition of their work, the VISION Collective was the recipient of the $20,000 McGraw Family Robert Sherman Award for Music Education and Community Outreach in 2020. Sarah’s passion for chamber music has led her to play with the Jupiter Chamber Players and attend prestigious festivals including Yellow Barn, Perlman Chamber Music Workshop, Kneisel Hall, and Prussia Cove Open Chamber Music. She has performed with artists such as Itzhak Perlman, Catherine Cho, Roger Tapping, Natasha Brofsky, and Vivian Weilerstein.
Cellist Elena Ariza is rapidly establishing herself as one of today’s most creative and community-driven cellists. Elena was recently a featured cellist on Yo-Yo Ma’s groundbreaking Music Art Life project, and has been a guest artist on NPR’s national radio show From the Top. She has performed with luminaries such as Itzhak Perlman, Vivian Weilerstein, Christopher O’Riley, and Michael Tilson Thomas. She is fiercely committed to community activism and has organized fundraiser events for the 2011 Tōhoku tsunami, the 2021 Haitian earthquake, and most recently, for those affected by the Russian war in Ukraine. An incoming doctoral student at The Juilliard School, Elena is currently studying under the tutelage of Astrid Schween and Joel Krosnick. She previously received an Artist Diploma from Juilliard and attended the Columbia-Juilliard Exchange Program, majoring in computer science. She remains active as a coder in her free time.
Performance Venue: Sarasota Art Museum | 1001 S Tamiami Trail, Sarasota, FL 34236
