String quartet coming to Tucson brings fresh perspective to old works

Sure, the ensemble, led by the husband-and-wife founding members, violinist Nicholas Kitchen and cellist Yeesun Kim, is up on the modern digital tools — they were, after all, the first to use laptops on stage during performances instead of paper scores.

But it’s the old-school ethos that separates them from a lot of their chamber music peers.

Under Kitchen, the ensemble isn’t satisfied with simply performing the notes on the page, especially when it comes to Beethoven.

Instead, Kitchen is known to pore over the original handwritten manuscripts in search of the hidden notations and nuances which bring a fresh perspective that is closer to the composer’s original intent.

Kitchen teaches a class on what he calls “Creativity and Manuscripts” at the New England Conservatory, where the Borromeo has been in residence for more than three decades.

Not that the music will sound appreciably different when the ensemble performs Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 2 in G major Wednesday, Oct. 28, to open Arizona Friends of Chamber Music’s 2026-27 season. But perhaps if you listen closely, you might hear a newfound inflection or some minor alteration that you had never heard before.

That’s kind of Kitchen’s point.

Wednesday’s concert at Leo Rich Theater, 260 S. Church Ave., is the ensemble’s first here since it played the 2011 Arizona Friends Tucson Winter Chamber Music Festival.

The quartet — in addition to Kitchen and Kim, it includes violinist Kristopher Tong and violist Melissa Reardon — will open the concert with Turkish-American composer Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol’s “The Demons and Humans of Siyah-Kalem,” which the composer wrote for the ensemble in 2024.

Caroline Shaw’s “Entr’acte” and Dvorák’s String Quartet No. 14 in A-flat major are also on the program.

Wednesday’s concert begins at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $50 for adults and $12 for students with ID through arizonachambermusic.org.