HSQ to Close Season by Welcoming Back Former Member Joanna Mendoza

Copy by Chip Chandler, 806-651-2124, cchandler@wtamu.edu

CANYON, Texas — Harrington String Quartet will close out its season with a concert reuniting them with a longtime member.

Violist Joanna Mendoza, who performed with the quartet from 1996 to 2007, will return for HSQ’s “Dear Old Friends” concert, set for 7:30 p.m. April 29 in Mary Moody Northen Recital Hall on the Canyon campus of West Texas A&M University.

Tickets are $20. Call 806-651-2840 or visit showtix4u.com/event-details/60958.

The quartet is comprised of four faculty members from WT’s School of Music: Rossitza Goza, violin; Evgeny Zvonnikov, violin; Vesselin Todorov, viola; and Emmanuel Lopez, cello.

Photo: Joanna Mendoza

Mendoza, who now performs with the Arianna String Quartet and serves as associate professor of viola at the University of Missouri–St. Louis, will join HSQ for Johannes Brahms’ String Quintet in G Major.

Brahms intended the quintet to be his final chamber work, but thankfully, there was more to come,” Goza said. “We are thrilled to bring back to West Texas our dear friend Joanna for this exuberant closer.”

Mendoza said her years with HSQ “were significant and formative.”

“I can’t tell you how much it means to me to go back to Amarillo and Canyon to play with the HSQ again,” Mendoza said. “I’m eager to see the campus and the School of Music. I understand so much has changed and I’m so happy to hear how the entire community is thriving.”

The concert also will feature Frank Bridge’s “Three Novelletten,” a series of impressionistic miniatures from the early 20th century.

HSQ also will perform Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s String Quartet in F Major which, like the Brahms composition, closes with a Hungarian dance.

“Both the Mozart and the Brahms have been performed in West Texas by previous incarnations of the HSQ and are old friends to all of us,” Goza said.

HSQ was established by a generous gift from the late Sybil B. Harrington to benefit the Panhandle community. From its founding in 1981, the quartet has brought stellar credentials and a refined sense of ensemble and musical integrity to performances across the nation and internationally.

HSQ’s collaborative recording with the Phoenix Chorale, “Northern Lights,” was distinguished as iTunes’s Best Classical Vocal Album of 2012. In 2005, the quartet also released a Grammy-nominated album of works by American composer Daniel McCarthy on the Albany Records label.

Fostering an appreciation of the arts is a key principle of the University’s long-range plan, WT 125: From the Panhandle to the World.

That plan is fueled by the historic, $125 million One West comprehensive fundraising campaign. To date, the five-year campaign — which publicly launched Sept. 23 — has raised about $110 million.

About West Texas A&M University

WT is located in Canyon, Texas, on a 342-acre residential campus. Established in 1910, the University has been part of The Texas A&M University System since 1990. WT, a Hispanic Serving Institution since 2016, boasts an enrollment of about 10,000 and offers 59 undergraduate degree programs, more than 35 master’s degrees and two doctoral degrees. The University is also home to the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, the largest history museum in the state and the home of one of the Southwest’s finest art collections. The Buffaloes are a member of the NCAA Division II Lone Star Conference and offers 14 men’s and women’s athletics programs.

—WT—