The Jasper Quartet will kick off Series of four concerts Nov. 19

By Lloyd Garrison

Infinity Hall’s billboard, which is loaded with popular comedy acts, jazz, folk and country music groups, is making room for classical music as well. In partnership with Yale’s Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Infinity Hall owner Dan Hincks is mounting a series of four concerts during the winter that in previous years were performed in Battell House. The first concert, on Wednesday, November 19 at 7:30 p.m., features the award-winning Jasper String Quartet. The group comes to Norfolk fresh from winning four of chamber music’s most prestigious prizes: the grand prize and audience prize at the 2008 Plowman Chamber Music Competition, the grand prize at the 2008 Coleman Competition, first prize at Chamber Music Yellow Springs Competition, and the silver medal at the coveted Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. The Nov. 19 program will feature Haydn’s string quartet in D Major, No. 5, Ligeti’s string quartet No.1, which the group introduced at the Norfolk Camber Music Festival last summer, and Beethoven’s quartet in E-Flat Major. The group will be at Norfolk’s Botelle School on Nov. 3 working with students in the school’s string program that is sponsored by the Battell Associates. The concert series will continue on Sunday, Jan. 25 at 3 p.m. with a performance by guitarists at the Yale School of Music. The Jasper will return on March 25 at 7:30 p.m. The series will conclude with a benefit performance for the Norfolk Library, the Norfolk Lions Club Ambulance and the Norfolk Volunteer Fire Department, with the date, time and artists to be announced. The Jasper takes its name from the Canadian National Park where the group played a series of impromptu “guerilla concerts” as representatives of the 9th Annual Banff International Quartet Competition. The group is currently this year’s quartet-in-residence at the Yale School of Music. Tickets may be purchased on line at InfinityHall.com or by calling the box office at 542-5531.