Gary Payne Photogrpahy
The Formosa Quartet received a glowing review from the San Diego Story following their Art of Élan performance at the San Diego Museum of Art! Below is an excerpt from the review, “The Formosa Quartet Plays Both For and With the Art of Elan Audience,” published on March 16, 2023:
…the Formosa Quartet took center stage to play Derrick Skye’s 2017 American Mirror, Part II, a clever, intricate piece that required audience participation (!), followed by a set of four commissioned works based on contrasting styles of American popular music titled American Roadmap.
In contrast to the title of Derrick Skye’s American Mirror title, the portion of the work played by the Formosa Quartet is based on classical Indian rhythmic and melodic traditions, and it also involves clapping by both the performers and members of the audience to flesh out its sharply defined rhythmic contours. Before the work began when Formosa Quartet violist Matthew Cohen was teaching the audience its own clapping patterns and accompanying gestures, I was filled with apprehension. To get an audience at a classical music performance to do anything together but listen attentively is a massive challenge.
Yet, towards the end of Skye’s virtuoso composition for string quartet—in which various quartet members had already engaged in much intermittent complex rhythmic clapping—when Cohen signaled the audience to do its part, they responded with such clean precision that I sat in astonishment!
I was not astonished at the Formosa Quartet’s commanding performance of Skye’s quartet: from first violinist Jasmine Lin’s bravura flourishes to second violinist Wayne Lee’s lithe cantabile lines, to Cohen’s bold solos and cellist Deborah Pae’s burnished, inviting bass lines. Their performances with Art of Elan in 2015 and 2016 were most impressive, and their return is truly welcome.