Congratulations to Jay Hurst, the winner of the 2012-13 Composition Department “Kuttner String Quartet” Competition. His work Chekhov’s Gun will be performed in a concert at the Indiana University Grunwald Gallery, Saturday April 20 at 2pm.
Performing Chekhov’s Gun will be Jacobs School of Music student quartet Michael Acosta and Jinty McTavish, violins; Josh Hunton, viola; and Andrew Bader, cello.
“Chekhov’s Gun originally existed as a piece for solo marimba,” said Hurst. “I realized several months later that the aggressive, gritty counterpoint, as well as the quiet, colorful sections of the piece would translate surprisingly well to string quartet. While the string quartet version of Chekhov’s Gun has noticeable differences from the marimba original, the compositional aesthetic of both versions is informed throughout by a quote from author Anton Chekhov: ‘One must not put a loaded rifle on the stage if no one is thinking of firing it.'”
The concert is part of Saturday Afternoon String Quartets, a series of concerts performed by Jacobs School student quartets, supervised and coached by the Pacifica Quartet, the school’s resident faculty ensemble. Learn more about the concert series >
Jay Hurst (b. 1989), from Cape Canaveral, FL, received a Bachelor of Music in Theory and Composition in May 2011 from Stetson University in DeLand, FL and is currently pursuing a Master’s in Composition at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. He has studied privately with composers Claude Baker, Aaron Travers, Don Freund, on the Jacobs faculty, as well as Sydney Hodkinson, and Manuel De Murga. Hurst is a Barbara and David Jacobs Fellow and currently serves as president of the IU Student Composers Association.