WINSTON-SALEM – The School of Music at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA) presents the American String Quartet and Oskar Espina-Ruiz on Tuesday, Oct. 2.

The critically acclaimed American String Quartet and UNCSA artist-faculty Oskar Espina-Ruiz, clarinet, perform Brahms' Clarinet Quintet and Schubert's String Quartet No. 14, "Death and the Maiden," in a memorial concert that will honor Louise Quantock Watson, mother of William R. Watson, friend of the School of Music.

Espina-Ruiz joined the artist-faculty of UNCSA School of Music in 2011. He will appear with the Quartet, which includes Peter Winograd, violin; Laurie Carney, violin; Daniel Avshalomov, viola; and Wolfram Koessel, cello.

The concert will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 2 in Watson Chamber Music Hall on the UNCSA campus, 1533 South Main St., Winston-Salem. Tickets are $25 for adults and $20 for seniors/students. Call the UNCSA Box Office at 336-721-1945 for reservations, or visit www.uncsa.edu/performances to purchase tickets online.

Louise Quantock Watson passed away April 21 after a brief illness, at age 98. Mrs. Watson was a devoted wife, mother, grandmother and great grandmother. She was active in many church and civic organizations and loved gardening, golf and bridge (a life master). She also enjoyed summers at Oak Island, N.C. where she had a home for over 40 years. For Mrs. Watson’s complete obituary, please visit http://salemfh.com/obituaries/1699/.

 Oskar Espina-Ruiz has been described by the press as a “masterful soloist” and a “highly expressive” clarinetist. Over the past ten years Espina-Ruiz has performed at major concert halls and festivals to high critical acclaim, including concerto performances at the Philharmonic Hall in St. Petersburg, Russia, and recitals in New York City, Washington DC, Moscow, Madrid, Tokyo, Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. He has appeared as soloist with the St. Petersburg State Academic Symphony (Russia), St. Petersburg Chamber Philharmonic (Russia), Orquesta Sinfónica de la Ciudad de Asunción (Paraguay) and Bilbao Symphony (Spain).

His chamber music collaborations include the Shanghai, Escher and Daedalus quartets. He has recorded for the Bridge, Kobaltone and Prion labels, receiving high critical acclaim by fellow clarinetists Richard Stoltzman and Charles Neidich for his solo recording “Julián Menéndez Rediscovered.”

He holds a DMA from Stony Brook University, where his major teachers were Charles Neidich and Ayako Oshima. From 2009 to 2011 he was on the clarinet faculty at the Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music, in San Juan, P.R. Since 2006 he is artistic director of the Treetops Chamber Music Society, in Stamford, Conn.

Internationally recognized as one of the world's finest quartets, the American String Quartet has spent decades honing the luxurious sound for which it is famous. The Quartet will celebrate its 40th anniversary in 2014, and, in its years of touring, has performed in all fifty states and has appeared in the most important concert halls worldwide. Their presentations of the complete quartets of Beethoven, Schubert, Schoenberg, Bartók, and Mozart have won widespread critical acclaim, and their MusicMasters Complete Mozart String Quartets, performed on a matched quartet set of instruments by Stradivarius, are widely considered to have set the standard for this repertoire. For more information on the Quartet, please visit www.americanstringquartet.com.

As America’s first state-supported arts school, the University of North Carolina School of the Arts is a unique stand-alone public university of arts conservatories. With a high school component, UNCSA is a degree-granting institution that trains young people of talent in music, dance, drama, filmmaking, and design and production. Established by the N.C. General Assembly in 1963, the School of the Arts opened in Winston-Salem (“The City of Arts and Innovation”) in 1965 and became part of the University of North Carolina system in 1972. World-renowned conductor and educator John Mauceri became Chancellor of UNCSA in 2006. For more information, visit www.uncsa.edu.

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