The Metropolitan Cello Quartet

Journey through centuries of music in this unique blend of chamber music spanning the Middle Ages to present day. Enjoy the rich, warm, and resonant sounds of four cellos in harmony, performed by the acclaimed Metropolitan Cello Quartet—featuring Zachary Brown, Joshua Dent, Diana Golden, and Kirsten Jermé. This program features masterworks and contemporary pieces from an array of visionary composers spanning nearly a thousand years: • Hildegard, Bach, and Mozart • Piazzolla, Moszkowski, and Guillaume • Mason, Wiancko, and Casarrubios Following the concert, Observatory staff will provide guided tours of the night sky (weather permitting) through our many telescopes on site, including the apochromatic Zerochromat telescope in our historic observation dome. $20 Adult, $15 Observatory Members, Children Uner 16 FREE. Due to limited space, registration is strongly encouraged. ABOUT THE ARTISTS New York City-based cellist Diana Golden is a multidimensional artist who performs with chamber ensembles, symphony orchestras, and musical theater and opera companies. She serves as Assistant Principal Cellist of New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players, and enjoys regular engagements with American Ballet Theatre, American Symphony Orchestra, and Distinguished Concerts International New York. She has performed for the feature documentary film After Sherman with music by Tamar-kali, and commercials for Offerup and the YMCA. Her recent involvement in musical theater productions includes performing as a substitute cellist for the Broadway show Gypsy, performing for off-Broadway productions of Dear Evan Hansen, Bettinger’s Luggage, and Anne Frank, and for musicals at Opera Saratoga, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Adirondacks Lakes Center for the Arts, 54Below, and New Studio Broadway. “Played with eloquent command,” according to Strings Magazine, Golden’s album Tanbou Kache (Hidden Drum) on the New Focus Recordings label, recorded with pianist Shawn Chang, celebrates Haiti’s rich and fascinating tradition of art music. An active chamber musician, Golden has performed with the Metropolitan Cello Quartet, Percussia, and Seven Hills Chamber Music, as well as alongside violist Gregory K. Williams in the Golden Williams Duo, which collaborates with living composers to use music and the arts as a mirror to reflect on and dialogue with the world around us, by creating and performing thought-provoking music relevant to our own time. Golden holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts in Cello Performance from Rutgers University, a Master of Arts in Cello Performance with Distinction from the Royal Academy of Music in London, a Bachelor of Arts in English from Cornell University, and a Bachelor of Music in Cello Performance from San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Joshua Dent began playing cello at the age of fourteen in Kissimmee, Florida. Two years later they began learning improvisation and exploring genres outside of the classical umbrella of music. Towards the end of their studies at Florida State University, they decided it was best to pursue music by learning in the professional world in different ways. They resided in Nashville, Tn until 2023, when they relocated to Brooklyn, NY. Their career is always changing; currently, their work ranges from playing in or composing for chamber music groups, vaudeville style bands, rock groups, and jazz ensembles, to playing with singers/songwriters, recording for studio sessions, and teaching improvisation workshops for cello studies around the country. Spending much of the year away from their home, Joshua frequently travels around the U.S. and Europe playing music and collaborating with artists of other mediums such as painters, dancers, writers, and actors. Originally from Far Rockaway Queens, Zachary Brown is a NYC based cellist who focuses on pushing the "expected" musical paradigm of the cello. During his initial instruction at the conservatory at Ithaca College, he attended the Acoustic Music Seminar. There, under the influence and guidance of Mike Marshal, Julian Lage, Bryan Sutton, Edgar Meyer and more, he returned with a drive to do more with the cello, more than just western classical repertoire. Zach began a concentration in Jazz studies for the remainder of his time to figure out how, as a cellist, to be musically flexible and malleable and not to be confined to a defined style. After school he helped start the group Westbound Situation, a progressive acoustic quartet that strives to seamlessly pull together the styles of music they have studied and are inspired by. Be it a constant, swirling mix of Jazz, bluegrass, funk, classical music etc., this has become his main project. With Westbound Situation, Zach has performed at both jazz venues like The Blue Llama, and as concerto guest artists with the Marquette symphony, trying to constantly push that typical and expected boundary of where string players belong. Zach has been a guest artist and clinician at the New Directions Cello Festival, the Wintergrass Festival, and multiple education 'caravans' with the Riverfolk Music and Arts. In addition to performing with Westbound Situation, Zach has performed with artists Black Violin, Mike Marshall and Darol Anger, and Terrence Blanchard with the Turtle Island String Quartet. A devoted collaborator and educator, cellist Kirsten Jermé enjoys an eclectic freelance life that has brought her to stages from Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center to Radio City Music Hall and the United Nations. She performs with a variety of chamber ensembles and orchestras including the Harlem Chamber Players and SONYC, as a sub in the American Ballet Theatre (ABT) Orchestra, and has subbed at numerous Broadway shows including Maybe Happy Ending, The Great Gatsby, Cats: The Jellicle Ball, Gypsy, The Notebook, and Sweeney Todd. She has appeared as guest cellist with the Cassatt String Quartet, the North Country Chamber Players, and Semplice Players at BargeMusic, performed in festivals including the Bar Harbor Music Festival in Maine and Britt Festival Orchestra in Oregon, and as a chamber musician with numerous organizations and venues from the Carolina Ballet to the National Gallery of Art to the Speed Museum in Louisville. Formerly cellist of the Larchmere String Quartet, she performed nationally and internationally while also serving as Eykamp String Quartet Faculty Artist-in-Residence at the University of Evansville and Principal Cellist of the Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra. Kirsten has also served on the cello faculty at North Carolina State University. Kirsten is currently on faculty of the New York Youth Symphony Chamber Music Program and teaches cello at Riverdale Country School. Currently a D.M.A. candidate at the CUNY Graduate Center, she holds degrees from Stony Brook University and Eastman School of Music. Her primary teachers include Colin Carr, Steven Doane, and Marcy Rosen.