Forget everything audiences think they know about a string quartet. This Valentine's Day weekend, Rendezvous Arts welcomes ATLYS, an all-female powerhouse quartet with an international following. The group takes four classical string instruments far beyond the expected. ATLYS is classically trained, but tradition doesn't hold the quartet back. Members move from folk and pop to film music, electronic dance music and original works, even bringing looping and other technology into the mix. Their music has earned more than 25 million streams worldwide, and they've performed everywhere from intimate concert spaces to Red Rocks and the Gorge Amphitheatre. Every piece on this program has a special connection to ATLYS. Each was written or arranged for the quartet, or created by the musicians themselves. Along the way, the group will share the stories behind the music and guide the audience from one sound world to the next. Expect virtuosity and personality. Expect familiar melodies in unexpected places. And expect four musicians who love making music together — and sharing it with everyone in the room. Four strings. A whole musical universe. One very good reason to make Rendezvous part of a Valentine's weekend.

The featured visual artist for this program is Glenn Hansen, a photographer and educator whose work is grounded in careful observation and the experience of place. Hansen's career has spanned both film and digital photography, from years working alongside renowned photographer David Plowden to more than three decades teaching photography at the College of DuPage. His work moves between urban landscapes, the edges of suburbia and rural America, and the expansive high plains of the West. Whether working with a large-format camera or today's digital tools, Hansen approaches photography with the same idea at its center: "Let me show you this." His images invite viewers to stop, look closely and experience a place through someone else's eyes — a fitting companion to ATLYS and its own invitation to hear familiar instruments in entirely new ways.

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