On Thursday, March 20 at 7:30pm, the Chiara String Quartet will be performing the final concert of their Hixson-Lied Concert Series 2013-2014 Season at Kimball Recital Hall (11th and R Streets). The concert will celebrate their newest album, Brahms by Heart, due out on March 25, 2014, and include Brahms’ String Quartet in B-flat Major, Op. 67, String Quartet in a minor, Op. 51, No. 2, and Sextet in B Flat Major, Op. 18 with violist Clark Potter and cellist Karen Becker. The members of the Chiara String Quartet are the Hixson-Lied Artists-in-Residence at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Glenn Korff School of Music. A CD release party will follow the concert, where advance copies of the CD will be available for purchase.

“We are thrilled to play an all-Brahms concert in celebration of our CD, Brahms By Heart. Since we have been in residence at UNL, the Lincoln community has embraced our performances of Brahms quartets, and we are excited to finally bring recordings of these works to the public. It is only fitting that we welcome our dear UNL colleagues, Karen Becker and Clark Potter, to join us in Brahms’ wondrous B-flat sextet.”

The Chiara Quartet recorded all of Brahms’ String Quartets on Brahms by Heart entirely from memory, without any printed sheet music. It was a tremendous task, but the Quartet feels it has brought the group to a new level of performance and cohesion. After spending countless hours working toward playing from memory, they now see sheet music as a distraction, instead of an aid – so much so that they have made the decision to perform nearly all of their repertoire from memory in concert as well. After memorizing a work, each member of the quartet feels fully present in the moment, truly performing with heart, by heart.

Of the process, the Chiara’s cellist Gregory Beaver says, “The act of performing from memory has been challenging for us. Each member must find a way to know the music inside and out. But the payback for each of us is equally rewarding, bringing us that much closer together in our music-making.”

The 2-CD set includes Johannes Brahms’ String Quartet No. 1 in C Minor, Op. 51 No. 1; String Quartet No. 2 in A Minor, Op. 51 No. 2; String Quartet No. 3 in B-flat Major, Op. 67; and Brahms’ String Quintet No. 2 in G Major, Op. 111 with violist Roger Tapping. The album was recorded by Grammy Award-winning producer Judith Sherman at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall in Troy, New York. (Review copies available upon request.)