Robert Sirota - Contrapassos (Telegraph Quartet; Abigail Fischer)

Information

Composer: Robert Sirota

• String Quartet No. 3, Wave Upon Wave
• Contrapassos, for Soprano and String Quartet

Telegraph Quartet

    Eric Chin, violin

    Joseph Maile, violin

    Pei-Ling Lin, viola

    Jeremiah Shaw, cello

&

Abigail Fischer, soprano

Date: 2026

Label: Azica Records

_____________________

Composer Robert Sirota has released his eleventh album, Contrapassos, on the Azica Records label, featuring performances by soprano Abigail Fischer and the Telegraph Quartet. The recording includes two major chamber works: the Naumburg Foundation–commissioned String Quartet No. 3 "Wave Upon Wave" (2018), premiered at Carnegie Hall as the culmination of a socially reflective trilogy, and the titular Contrapassos for String Quartet and Soprano (2019). Inspired by Dante’s poetry and revised following pandemic delays before its 2022 premiere, the title work explores themes of mortality, judgment, and childhood nostalgia alongside an enduring embrace of faith and life’s beauty.

Acclaimed American composer, educator, and music executive Robert Sirota (b. 1949) is celebrated for a distinguished multi-decade career marked by a highly expressive, undogmatic musical language across symphonic, chamber, choral, and liturgical genres. A Harvard-educated pupil of Nadia Boulanger, Earl Kim, and Leon Kirchner, Sirota has served as director of the Peabody Institute, chairperson at New York University, and president of the Manhattan School of Music. His expansive catalog includes major commissions for leading ensembles, collaborations with pop artist Paul Simon, and premiering works at venues like Carnegie Hall. Sirota continues to write, teach, and curate the annual Muzzy Ridge Concerts in Maine.

Formed in 2013, the Telegraph Quartet, comprising violinists Eric Chin and Joseph Maile, violist Pei-Ling Lin, and cellist Jeremiah Shaw, is celebrated for its balance of classic chamber repertoire and contemporary works. Winners of the Walter W. Naumburg Chamber Music Award and the Fischoff Competition Grand Prize, the ensemble serves as Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Michigan following a long-standing tenure at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. They have performed globally at venues like Carnegie Hall and Philharmonie de Paris, collaborating with notable artists such as Leon Fleisher and championing 20th- and 21st-century compositions by John Harbison, Robert Sirota, and Osvaldo Golijov.

High Resolution 24-bit / 48 kHz