Mohawk Trail Concerts
Telegraph Quartet at Charlemont Federated Church
By: MTC - May 12, 2026
On Saturday, June 20, 2026 at 5pm, the Telegraph Quartet (Eric Chin and Joseph Maile, violins; Pei-Ling Lin, viola; Jeremiah Shaw, cello), a group The New York Times describes as “full of elegance and pinpoint control” is presented by Mohawk Trail Concerts. The performance will be held at Charlemont Federated Church (175 Main St.).
Known for technical prowess and an appreciation for the history behind music, the Telegraph Quartet brings its fluid synchronicity and refined artistry to a musically diverse program featuring Eleanor Alberga’s String Quartet No. 3, The Way You Look Tonight by Jerome Kern, and Claude Debussy’s String Quartet.
The Telegraph Quartet formed in 2013 with an equal passion for standard and contemporary chamber music repertoire. Described by the San Francisco Chronicle as “an incredibly valuable addition to the cultural landscape” and “powerfully adept… with a combination of brilliance and subtlety,” the Telegraph Quartet was awarded the prestigious 2016 Walter W. Naumburg Chamber Music Award and the Grand Prize at the 2014 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition.
Jamaican-British composer Eleanor Alberga’s music has been commissioned by the BBC Proms and The Royal Opera, and performed all over the world. She was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours 2021 for Services to British Music. She wrote her third string quartet in 2001, and describes it as “reflective and inward looking.” The Telegraph pairs Alberga’s quartet with a Great American Songbook transcription of Jerome Kern’s The Way You Look Tonight, originally written for the film Swing Time. The program’s finale is the only string quartet written by iconic French composer Claude Debussy, whose Impressionist style influenced many great artists of the Jazz Age.
The Telegraph has performed in concert halls, music festivals, and academic institutions across the United States and abroad, including New York City’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, San Francisco’s Herbst Theatre, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s Chamber Masters Series, and at festivals including the Chautauqua Institute, Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, and the Emilia Romagna Festival. The Quartet is currently the Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Michigan.
Notable collaborations include projects with pianists Leon Fleisher and Simone Dinnerstein; cellists Norman Fischer and Bonnie Hampton; violinist Ian Swensen; and the St. Lawrence Quartet and Henschel Quartett. A fervent champion of 20th- and 21st-century repertoire, the Telegraph Quartet has premiered works by Osvaldo Golijov, John Harbison, Robert Sirota, and Richard Festinger.
The Telegraph Quartet released its celebrated debut album Into The Light in 2018 and is currently recording an extensive three-album series titled 20th Century Vantage Points for Azica Records, exploring string quartets of the 20th century. The first volume, Divergent Paths (2022), features two works that (to the best of the Quartet’s knowledge) have never been recorded on the same album before: Maurice Ravel’s String Quartet in F Major and Arnold Schoenberg’s String Quartet No. 1 in D minor, Op. 7. In August 2025, the Telegraph released the second volume, Edge of the Storm, which examines the turbulent years of war and its aftermath from 1941-1951 through string quartets by Gra?yna Bacewicz, Benjamin Britten, and Mieczys?aw Weinberg. Volume three will be released in fall 2027. In addition, the Telegraph releases recordings of the string quartets of Robert Sirota in summer 2026 (Azica Records) and of Kenji Bunch in spring 2027 (Phenotypic Records).
Beyond the concert stage, the Telegraph Quartet seeks to spread its music through education and audience engagement. The Quartet has given master classes at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Collegiate and Pre-College Divisions, through the Morrison Artist Series at San Francisco State University, and abroad at the Taipei National University of the Arts, National Taiwan Normal University, and in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Telegraph has also served as artists-in-residence at the Interlochen Adult Chamber Music Camp, SoCal Chamber Music Workshop, and Crowden Music Center Chamber Music Workshop. In November 2020, the Telegraph Quartet launched ChamberFEAST!, a chamber music workshop in Taiwan. In fall 2020, Telegraph launched an online video project called TeleLab, in which the ensemble collectively breaks down the components of a movement from various works for quartet. In the summers of 2022 and 2024, the Telegraph Quartet traveled to Vienna to work with Schoenberg expert Henk Guittart in conjunction with the Arnold Schoenberg Center, researching all of Schoenberg's string quartets.
For more information, visit www.telegraphquartet.com.
For Calendar Editors:
Concert details:
Who: Telegraph Quartet
Presented by Mohawk Trail Concerts
What: Music by Eleanor Alberga, Jerome Kern, and Claude Debussy
When: Saturday, June 20, 2026 at 5pm
Where: Charlemont Federated Church, 175 Main St., Charlemont, MA 01339
Tickets and More information: https://www.mohawktrailconcerts.org/2026-season
Description: The award-winning Telegraph Quartet, a group The Strad describes as having "precise tuning, textural variety and impassioned communication,” is presented in concert by Mohawk Trail Concerts. Known for technical prowess and an appreciation for the history behind music, the Telegraph brings its fluid synchronicity and refined artistry to a musically diverse program featuring Eleanor Alberga’s String Quartet No. 3, The Way You Look Tonight by Jerome Kern, and Claude Debussy’s String Quartet.
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