EUGENE–An award-winning string quartet from Prague and jazz performances by four musicians on one, two and three pianos are featured in the two concerts scheduled this week at the University of Oregon School of Music, 961 E. 18th Ave.

For more information, call the music school weekdays at (541) 346-5678. To confirm concert times and ticket information, call GuardLine from a Touch-Tone phone at 485-2000, ext. 2533, for a 24-hours-a-day taped message of the week’s events.

The Skampa String Quartet, an award-winning ensemble from Prague in the Czech Republic, will give a Chamber Music Series concert at 8 p.m. in Beall Concert Hall, 961 E. 18th Ave.

Reserved-seat tickets range from $8 to $22, available in advance from the Hult Center, (541) 682-5000, or from the Erb Memorial Union Ticket Office, 346-4363. Student rush tickets will be sold at the door for $5 and $9.

The program features four selections–string quartets by Leos Janacek ("Intimate Letters"), Bedrich Smetana and Frantisek Richter, and "Meditation on the St. Wenceslas Chorale" by Josef Suk.

The Skampa Quartet is one of the most exciting young string quartets on the international scene today. Founded in 1989 at the Prague Academy of Music, the Skampa Quartet won the 1990 Best Quartet prize at the Premio Vittorio Gui competition in Florence. The following year, the quartet was awarded first prize in the Charles Hennen competition in The Netherlands and, in 1992, they received a special prize from the Czech Chamber Music Society.

The Skampa Quartet made its highly successful debut at London’s Wigmore Hall in 1993, for which it received the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Best Debut 1993 award. Subsequently, the quartet was appointed as the first-ever quartet-in-residence of Wigmore Hall, beginning in 1994; their frequent concerts there have been described by the London Times as "red-letter days in London’s chamber music season."

The Skampa Quartet has performed in Japan, North America and throughout Europe. In 1997 the quartet toured Japan and made its debut at Australia’s Melbourne Festival, subsequently returning for performances in both countries. In North America, the quartet made its New York debut in 1995 and has since performed in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Vancouver, Chicago, Philadelphia, Toronto and other cities.

At New York’s Carnegie Hall, they gave the American premiere of Peter Eben’s "String Quartet" last season. In 1998, the Skampa Quartet’s debut performance for National Public Radio’s "St. Paul Sunday" aired across the nation to great acclaim, and they also premiered "Terezin Ghetto Requiem" by Czech composer Sylvie Bodorova at England’s Warwick Festival.

The quartet’s current tour features 14 concerts, including performances in New York, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Pasadena, Cleveland, Toronto and Eugene.

Four jazz pianists from around the country will give a public recital to open the West Coast Conference of Music Theory and Analysis. Concert time is 8 p.m. in Beall Hall. Tickets, available at the door, are $7 general admission and $4 for students and senior citizens.

In addition to their careers as composers, performers and recording artists, all four pianists are senior professors of music theory at leading universities around the country.

Henry Martin teaches at Rutgers University, home of the Institute for Jazz Studies. Steve Strunk teaches at Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., while Keith Waters teaches at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Steve Larson teaches at the University of Oregon.

These four artists are also among the leading authorities on a topic that has recently captured the interest of music scholars: the theory and analysis of jazz. The four pianists first assembled at a 1998 conference on jazz in New Mexico, where they also performed several pieces for three pianos.

The April 14 program will include jazz performances for one, two, and three pianos. Each pianist will play a solo, and each also will be featured in various duet and trio combinations with the other pianists.

The solos will include Martin’s interpretation of James P. Johnson’s stride-piano composition, "Carolina Shout," and Larson’s improvisation on a popular song, "L’Homme arme," that is more than 500 years old.

The duets will include improvisations on pieces written by the performers, as well as some familiar and elegant jazz standards, including "All the Things You Are" and "World on a String."

The trios will include improvisations on original compositions previously performed and recorded by these pianists, and two note-for-note transcriptions of pieces from Bill Evans’ three-piano overdub album, "Conversations with Myself."

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