Carpe Diem String Quartet

“EXPLANATION Trustee members Jean Wu and I-Cheng Huang are a married couple.”

“EXPLANATION The Form 990 is prepared by an outside accounting firm, reviewed by the Treasurer and distributed to the full board of directors prior to filing.”

“EXPLANATION The organization makes its governing documents and financial statements available to the public upon request.”

“Carpe Diem String Quartets core mission is to redefine the chamber music experience, forge a new identity for chamber music, and bring musical access to the widest audience possible, regardless of means and circumstance. The Carpe Diem String Quartet is dedicated to achieving the highest level of performance by championing music of living composers with a balance of the classics and uncovering overlooked treasures of the chamber music repertoire. Carpe Diem is committed to musical education, integration with other art forms, and developing future lifelong music lovers. In addition to the classics, Carpe Diem performs contemporary music, popular music, their own original compositions, and also commissions new works, thereby augmenting the string quartet repertoire. By performing programs designed to appeal to audiences of all ages, means, and circumstances and establishing classical musics relevance to their lives, Carpe Diem creates new audiences inside and outsdie of the concert hall and revitalizes the chamber music experience.”

“Carpe Diem String Quartet is extensively committed to community engagement and musical education. The quartet continued to provide concerts in K-12 school settings in Ohio school districts and on tour throughout the United States, to music students and non-music students alike, supplementing existing music programs and bringing music into schools where no program currently exists. The audiences for all of these engagement programs, while vastly different, have one element in common a need for non-traditional programs and musical programming that falls outside the normal classical repertoire. Carpe Diem adjusted and altered programming to custom fit these widely varied demographics to suit each audience. Altering the programs and musical choices both gives the group greater leverage in attracting younger and broader audiences and makes the group relevant to people who may have had no prior experience with classical music or stringed instruments. Between 1 July 2014 and 30 June 2015 the quartet visited classrooms throughout the United States, with appearances in Laurel MT, Billings MT, Park City MT, Red Lodge MT, Neskowin OR, Safford Az, Thatcher Az, Willcox AZ, and the San Carlos Apache School on the San Carlos Reservation, AZ. Carpe Diem also gave masterclasses, question and answer sessions and panel discussions about music and entrepreneurship at Eastern Arizona College, St Vincents College PA, Palm Beach Atlantic University FL, and at the Alberta Bair Theater in Billings MT. While on tour, Carpe Diem performed ticketed concerts in Norfolk and Williamsburg VA, Charleston WV, Billings MT, Neskowin and Portland OR, Safford and Gold Canyon AZ, Pittsburgh PA, Palm Beach FL, Denver, Breckenridge and Boulder Co as well as on the radio in many of the above markets.Due to the collaborative nature of many of the quartets programs, Carpe Diem was able to strengthen ties with longtime artistic partner Columbus Dance Theatre, reconnect with pipa player Yihan Chen and rock singer/songwriter/guitarist Andrew Lipke, and build new ties with classical guitarist Nicolo Spera, the Led Zeppelin tribute band Get The Led Out, violinist/violist James Buswell, mandolinist Jeff Midkiff, and Dr. Markus Schmidt, President and Director of Research at the Ohio Sleep Medicine Institute who introduced the Ohio premiere of Korine Fujiwaras Morpheus Rides a work written in reference and reflection of the science of sleep. The wide variety of music represented was greatly appreciated by audiences and helped stretch musical boundaries for all involved. Carpe Diem continues to extend its mission of using music as a tool to bridge into communities and raise awareness. The quartet continued to bring free family concerts to the Central Ohio community on Seize the Music concert weekends, inviting families of all sizes and children of all ages to listen and enjoy the music, while maintaining an informal atmosphere and an open question and answer dialogue throughout the event. Carpe Diem also performed free concerts for skilled nursing facilities and in a wide variety of venues, including a concert at the Westminster Thurber Community in Columbus, OH. Carpe Diem continued their popular Columbus-based series Seize the Music, exploring multiple musical genres as well as presenting the standard quartet repertoire. After outgrowing its space at Harrison Park Community Center, Carpe Diem relocated the series to the McConnell Arts Center MAC in Worthington OH. World and Ohio Premieres of works by modern composers Lawrence Dillon, Korine Fujiwara, Tan Dun, Toru Takemitsu, and Jonathan Leshnoff were paired with works from the standard repertoire by Hugo Wolf, Luigi Boccherini, Edvard Grieg, Joseph Haydn, Claude Debussy, Anton Dvorak, and Samuel Barber, and rarely performed pieces such as Paul Juons String Quartet No. 1 OP 5, Arthur Footes Quartet for Strings No. 2, OP.32, and the Viola Quintet Op 16 by Sergei Taneyev. The highlight of the 14-15 season was Carpe Diems East Me”

“CONTINUED Through the East Meets West festival, Carpe Diem was able to create new relationships within the Chinese, Taiwanese, and Japanese communities, as well as the central Ohio community at large. The quartet celebrated the Chinese New Year with members of the Chinese community in Columbus in the week prior to the festval, and was able to form new friendships and partnerships there. Carpe Diem established new relationships in central Ohio schools with peformance for the entire student body of the Grapham School in Clintonville, and a special program for the students studying Chinese at the McVey Innovatiive Leariing Center in Hilliard City Schools. They also performed two concerts at Avery Elementary School in Hilliard Ohio in order to reach the entire student body. A grant from PNC ArtsAlive allowed Carpe Diem to fully realize Tan Duns Ghost Opera and expand the performance range of all quartet members and guest artist Yihan Chen. Presenting fully staged performance art, with instruments including cymbals, gongs, tam tams, rocks, singing, dramatic reading, and movement allowed the members to fearlessly stretch their artistic creativity. The quartets presentation of Ghost Opera necessitated the move to an actual theater, rather than the common room of Harrison Park Community Center that until this season was the concert home of Carpe Diem String Quartet. Additionally, the quartet was running out of space at Harrison Park, especially during Sunday afternoon concerts. The East Meets West prpject was the catalyst for the quartets move to the McConnell Arts Center. This move has in turn generated greater interest in the quartets free family concerts and ticketed concerts among Worthington residents who visit the MAC for other activities. It has also served the quartets current audience base well, as many of them already lived in Worthington. Carpe Diem is growing into the larger venue quickly, which is evidenced by the marked increase in ticket sales over the same period as last year. Carpe Diem was honored to be presented with a Franklin County Commissioners Award in cleberation of the East Meets West festival, public recognition of East Meets West presented by PNC ArtsAlive and the quartets dedication to the central Ohio community. Despite the political climate of the last decade, Carpe Diem has embarked on a performance and recording project to promote the music of Persian Iranian composers. This rich musical culture has been largely overlooked in the west, particularly the United States. Through relationships forged during Carpe Diems 2012 Persian Musical Feast - a weekend of Pesian art, poetry, food, carpet-weaving, classical Iranian art and the traditional Iranian folk music - the quartet successfully recorded the remainder fo the Calligraphy series of quartets by Persian composer Reza Vali for international distribution, and has garnered invitations to perform at the International Fair Festival in Tehran, Iran. Carpe Diem completed sessions for the final volume of the planned 5 disk set of the string quartets of Sergei Taneyev, distributed on the Naxos label. The Quartet also successfully finished recording sessions for Claudel, music written by Korine Fujiwara for the multimedia production of the same name. Champions of todays new music, Carpe Diem performed newly commissioned works by Lawrence Dillon, Korine Fujiwara, and Jonathan Leshnoff. Carpe Diem continued its collaborations with the Columbs Dance Theatre. Both organizations are committed to combining different art forms to create new and original projects that reach outside the trditional boundaries of both mediums. All works feature the dancers and musicians on stage together. In February, Carpe Diem and CDT relaunched a revisal of Claudel in the Lincoln Theatre, a much larger venue, in order to serve a wider audience, featured a musical score by Korine Fujiwara, and a multi-media presentation of, photography, text, song and dance, with images of the sculpted w”

“EXPLANATION All fees paid to professional musicians contracted to perform with the organization.”