Though it has the look and the talent of a classically trained string quartet, Opus Black String Quartet will be performing a broad range of contemporary music in a free concert at Oneida Public Library Wednesday, Oct. 5, at 7 p.m.
The alternative ensemble features Liz Friedel as first violinist, Juliane Price as second violinist, Allyson Sklar on viola and Kristen Kopf on cello. Each member of the quartet brings a distinct musical education and professional experience, creating together a rich music that blends the classical tradition with jazz, rock, bluegrass, Celtic and American folk.
Liz Friedel owns and operates the Music with Liz Contemporary Music Studio in Verona, N.Y., as well as a private music teacher. She regularly performs with local groups, crossing from bluegrass and Irish music to jazz and the blues.
Juliane Price, a native of Germany, is the director of Clever Canaries Music Together in Rome, a program for parents and children from birth to 6 years old that aims to encourage appreciation of the arts through activities combining music and motion. She lead a version of the program at the OPL during school winter break in 2013. A graduate of Folkwang Hochschule in Essen with a master’s in opera performance in 2000, Price has also become a local teacher of both musical theater and violin through her firm called Avivo, the Acting Voice Violin Studio.
Allyson Sklar, who studied at the Manhattan School of Music, owns the Valley Talent Education Center in New Hartford and is a teacher of both viola and violin. She is certified in the Suzuki Method, a pedagogical method devised by violinist Shinichi Suzuki that applies language acquisition theory to the teaching of music. She also provides Irish fiddling for the Celtic music group headquartered in Utica, Craobh Dugan.
The group’s cellist, Kristen Kopf, is a music teacher in the North Syracuse public schools, most recently at the Cicero Road Middle School in Cicero. She has been a band director as well in the Roxboro Road elementary and middle schools. A graduate of Syracuse University, she specializes in teaching alternative music.
Opus Black String Quartet has recently performed at the Local Music Project in Hamilton last March, a Cochran Memorial concert at the Oneida Castle Park in August and the Empire Patio at the New York State Fair in early September.
The concert is free and open to the public. For more information, stop by the library or call 315.363.3050.