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Premiere of the Month: Cris Derksen’s new cello quartet for the Galvin Quartet

20 June 2025

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The history of slavery in Rhode Island builds the basis for a new cello quartet

‘The only stipulation for the piece was that it had to be about Newport,’ says Canadian composer and cellist Cris Derksen about her new cello quartet commission for the Newport Classical Music Festival. ‘I did some research and Rhode Island has a really intense history with colonisation – including the slavery of Indigenous populations,’ adds the composer, who is Indigenous herself…

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