Dali Quartet brings focus on Latin American composers to CSB

When Dominic Salerni joined the Dalí Quartet in 2015, he faced a change in musical accent.

The group he formerly performed with, the Vega String Quartet, featured music from the classical European tradition. Joining Dalí Quartet, Salerni’s musical focus shifted to Latin American composers, while still performing those European classics.

“With Dalí, though we do still play Mozart and Beethoven and all that, the fun thing is to learn (Heiter) Villa-Lobos or Paquito d’Rivera or Carlos Gardel,” Salerni told the Allentown, Pennsylvania, newspaper The Morning Call in a 2016 story. 

The Dalí Quartet brings its signature mix of Latin American, classical and romantic repertoire to the stage at 7:30 p.m. Friday, March 29, at the Stephen B. Humphrey Theater on the Saint John’s University campus as part of the Fine Arts Series at the College of Saint Benedict and SJU.

This performance will feature all Latin composers as each member of the quartet has extensive musical experience on their own. Employing two violins, a viola and cello, they work together to create extraordinary works of music that takes audiences on a passionate journey of rhythm and exploration.

Salerni, the group’s first violinist, graduated with honors from the Cleveland Institute of Music and then studied at the Yale School of Music. He is a winner of the Yale Chamber Music Society competition and a 2016 finalist for the M Prize chamber arts competition at the University of Michigan.

Carlos Rubio, the second violinist for the group, started in music in the renowned Youth Orchestra System of Venezuela, and toured the world as a member of the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra. He has taught master classes and performed at numerous universities, including with the Oxford Chamber Orchestra.

Violist Adriana Linares has won first place in the Solo Viola competition at Indiana University and has had her music called “meltingly beautiful” by Naxos music label reviewers. She has played with the Philadelphia Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra has performed at Carnegie Hall. Linares also founded The Arts & Community Network, which provides music education to students and the larger community in Pennsylvania.

Jesús Morales plays cello in the group. He works as a cello professor at Temple University and runs his own private studio. He has performed with numerous orchestras such as Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra and the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra. He has additionally participated in summer festivals, recitals, and chamber music concerts around the world in locales such as Canada, Mexico and Venezuela.

The Dalí Quartet is devoted to audience development and to reaching communities of all kinds. Their community outreach will continue from March 26-March 29 while in central Minnesota.

The group will work with members of the CSB/SJU Orchestra on March 26. On March 27, they will conduct a chamber music class at Saint John’s Preparatory School and hold a Latin Fiesta at Clearview Elementary School in Clear Lake, Minnesota.

Finally, on March 28, Dalí Quartet will work with a Latin identity class in the CSB/SJU Hispanic studies area; conduct a chamber music workshop for seventh-grade students at Kennedy Community School in St. Joseph; and hold a Politics and a Pint Session at 7 p.m. at Brother Willie’s Pub, SJU.

Tickets for the Dalí Quartet performance are $27 for adults, $24 for seniors and $20 for CSB/SJU faculty and staff. Youth and students (with ID) get in for $15, and CSB/SJU student tickets are $10.

For tickets, call the Benedicta Arts Center Box Office at 320-363-5777 or order online.

Following the performance, there will be a reception in the adjacent Great Hall at SJU. Members of the Dalí Quartet will be at the reception, and a cash bar and complimentary appetizers will be served.

This project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.

The event is sponsored by Intercultural LEAD (Leadership, Education and Development) at CSB/SJU.