Philadelphia based composer Andrew Lipke will join forces with a quartet from the Salina Symphony including Music Director and Conductor Yaniv Segal, Denise Blehm Concertmaster, Melanie Mann, Principal Viola and Dena Berquist, Principal Cello.  

Some time ago I had the pleasure to attend a presentation by Andrew Lipke, about the history of the string quartet and about how the string quartet has impacted, influenced, and synthesized with Rock and Roll. "Rock and Roll and The String Quartet" is a great concept and is one of the best presentations I have seen in years. It is a must see for music lovers all over the country. - Dirk Brossé, Music Director of the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia

In this exciting new collaboration, The Stiefel Theatre The Salina Symphony and music director Yaniv Segal, and Philadelphia based composer and multi-instrumentalist Andrew Lipke* come together to explore the incredible ways in which music transcends boundaries, lifts the spirit, and constantly surprises and amazes with it’s boundless capacity for expression as a universal language.  We blur the imaginary divisions of genre and celebrate the magical essence that is at the core of all great music.

Rock ‘n Roll & The String Quartet - we embark on a journey through the amazing history of the String Quartet.  One of the most popular, versatile, and revered ensembles in classical music and beyond. With its incomparable agility, inimitable grace, and unparalleled emotional and musical potential, the deceptively simple combination of four instruments - 2 violins, 1 viola, and 1 cello - has been the vehicle for countless composers to practice their art and display their compositional prowess. But even classical music is too small a box to contain this musical force of nature, and we can find the string quartet displaying it's remarkable qualities in dozens of other genres from Jazz to Pop to Rock.  In "Rock ‘n Roll & The String Quartet" we not only explore the history of the string quartet in classical music, but we follow it's journey into the world of popular music through discussion and performance of works and arrangements of works by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Bartok, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Radiohead, The Velvet Underground, Bob Dylan, Neil young, Philip Glass, and original music by Andrew Lipke. We hope to make this an annual tradition.

There's nothing like the string quartet in all of music...it's not just an ensemble, but a musical form; it's a veritable proving ground for almost all the great composers; It's the epitome of  individuality seamlessly combined into a unified whole, and it's been an integral part of the musical output of artists as diverse as Mozart and The Rolling Stones.