Quartetti – a festival of string quartets – Oct. 18 – 20, 2018
October 18 – 20, 2018
Annex (823 Seymour Street, 2nd Floor)
Seven world-class string quartets will perform at Quartetti – a festival of string quartets. Offering a line-up of versatile contemporary string quartets from Canada, the US and Europe, featured quartets include Black Dog String Quartet, Quatuor Bozzini, JACK Quartet, Maurice Quartet, Penderecki Quartet, Quartetto Noûs and Mivos Quartet. Of special note, Vancouver’s Black Dog String Quartet will take the stage all three nights, performing works by Navajo/US composer Raven Chacon, and participants from Chacon’s Native American Composer Apprentice Project. Chacon will bring his unique workshop to Vancouver in advance of the festival, working with local Indigenous youths to create pieces for string quartet that will be premiered at the festival.
Join Black Dog String Quartet for an open rehearsal on Saturday, October 20 at the ANNEX from 2:30-4PM. Free and open to the public.
THURSDAY 18 OCTOBER 2018
Black Dog String Quartet (Vancouver)
Elyse Jacobson • Molly MacKinnon • John Kastelic • Doug Gorkoff
Formed in 2007, the Black Dog String Quartet is comprised of some of Vancouver’s finest young musicians. The group has appeared on the recordings of artists such as 54-40, Marianas Trench, Bleeding Through, and many others. Their solid classical background, high skill level, and collective open-mindedness set the Black Dog String Quartet apart as one of Vancouver’s most unique and versatile ensembles. In advance of the festival, Navajo (New Mexico) composer and performer Raven Chacon will lead a week-long composition workshop with local Indigenous youths. Pieces created as part of this workshop will be premiered by Black Dog Quartet on Friday and Saturday nights.
Program
John Kastelic, Rush Hour Technique (2013) 15′
Jocelyn Morlock, Vermillion (2014) 11′
Black Dog Quartet will perform each night – October 18-20. On Friday and Saturday, the quartet will premiere pieces created by youths as part of Raven Chacon’s Indigenous Youth String Quartet Workshop.
Quatuor Bozzini (Montreal)
Isabelle Bozzini • Stéphanie Bozzini • Alissa Cheung • Clemens Merkel
Since 1999, Quatuor Bozzini has been ever present as an original voice in new, experimental and classical music. Quatuor Bozzini stands out with their “extraordinary playing” (Alex Ross, The New Yorker), and their musical direction is radically contemporary, propelling the hyper-creative Montréal scene, and beyond. They have nurtured a vastly diverse repertoire that includes close to two hundred commissioned pieces, as well as over three hundred premieres. A Quatuor Bozzini concert resonates as an intensely shared experience, with meticulous and sensuous attention to detail.
Program
Cassandra Miller, About Bach (2015) 24’
James Tenney, Koan, for string quartet (1984) 19’
JACK Quartet (US)
Christopher Otto • Austin Wulliman • John Pickford Richards • Jay Campbell
Deemed “superheroes of the new music world” (Boston Globe), the JACK Quartet is “the go-to quartet for contemporary music, tying impeccable musicianship to intellectual ferocity and a take-no-prisoners sense of commitment” (Washington Post). The Toronto Start writes that “they are a musical vehicle of choice to the next great composers who walk among us”. The recipient of Lincoln Center’s Martin E. Segal Award, New Music USA’s Trailblazer Award, and the CMA/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming, JACK has performed to critical acclaim around the world, and has collaborated with composers John Luther Adams, Chaya Czernowin, Simon Steen-Andersen, Caroline Shaw, Helmut Lachenmann, Steve Reich, Matthias Pintscher, and John Zorn.
Program
John Zorn, The Alchemist (2014) 20’
Sabrina Schroeder, UNDERROOM (2018) 16′ – Canadian premiere
Commissioned by the Earle Brown Music Foundation and premiered by JACK Quartet on August 18, 2018 at the TIME SPANS Festival the DiMenna Center for Classical Music.
FRIDAY 19 OCTOBER 2018
Quartetto Maurice (Italy)
Georgia Privitera • Laura Bertolino • Francesco Vernero • Aline Privitera
Winner of XXXV Music critics Award Franco Abbiati in 2015, and of the Stipendium for Best Interpreters’ Award at Ferienkurse fur Neue Musik in Darmstadt in 2016, the Quartetto Maurice was founded in 2002 and focuses its artistic experience on 20th century and contemporary music. The quartet has performed through Italy and abroad, in a number of prestigious venues including the Venice Biennale, November Music Festival in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, the Biennale Zagreb, the Festival Mixtur in Barcelona, the Bludenzer Tage zeitgemäßer Musik 2017, and the Italian Academy of Columbia University in New York.
Program
Paolo Aralla, String Quartet n.4 (2018) 15’ – World premiere
Fausto Romitelli, Natura Morta con fiamme for string quartet and electronics (1991) 10’
Mauro Lanza, The 1987 Max Headroom broadcast incident for string quartet and electronics (2017) 11’
Penderecki Quartet (Kitchener-Waterloo)
Jeremy Bell • Jerzy Kapłanek • Christine Vlajk • Katie Schlaikjer
Celebrating their 31st anniversary, the Penderecki String Quartet began their career as winners of the Penderecki Prize at the National Chamber Music Competition in Łódz, Poland in 1986. Now based in Waterloo, Ontario where they have been Quartet-in-Residence at Wilfrid Laurier University since 1991, the Penderecki String Quartet has become one of the most celebrated chamber ensembles of their generation. The four Penderecki musicians (now originating from Poland, Canada, and USA) bring their varied yet collective experience to create performances that demonstrate their “remarkable range of technical excellence and emotional sweep” (Toronto, Globe and Mail).
Program
Christos Hatzis, String Quartet No.4, “The Suffering” 1. Gesthemane 2. Ecce Homo (2018) 30’
Commissioned by the Penderecki String Quartet with funds from the Ontario Arts Council
Peter Hatch, Once Upon a Time for string quartet and sampled sound (2017) 15’
Black Dog Quartet (Vancouver)
See Thursday, October 18 for details about the quartet.
Program
Dennelia Stevens, My Sleepy Children (2018) 4′ – Premiered by Catalyst Quartet °
Michael Begay, Hai (Navajo/English translation: Winter) (2018) 5’ §
Raven Chacon, The Journey of the Horizontal People (2016) 8′
- World premiere.
° Composed as part of Raven Chacon’s Native American Composer Apprentice Project.
SATURDAY 20 OCTOBER 2018
Quartetto Noûs (Italy)
Tiziano Baviera • Alberto Franchin • Sara Dambruoso • Tommaso Tesini
Noûs (nùs) is an ancient Greek word whose meaning is ‘mind’, and thence ‘rationality’, but also ‘inspiration’ and ‘creativity’. Quartetto Noûs, formed in 2011, has established itself in a short time as one of the most interesting chamber music ensemble of its generation. Its immersive performances are the result of a professional training where the Italian tradition and the most influential European schools are combined. Versatility and interpretative originality permeate the quartet’s repertoire, and attention to the new compositional languages drive them to experiment with innovative concert formats, such as performing by heart in complete darkness. In 2015 Noûs received the Arthur Rubinstein – Una Vita nella Musica 2015 Award “for establishing itself in a mere few years as one of the most promising Italian chamber music groups”.
Program
Claudio Ambrosini, Ma misi me per l’alto mare aperto (2015) 10’
Marco Quagliarini, Dal buio (2016) 18’
Silvia Colasanti, Di tumulti e d’ombre (2011) 15’
Mivos Quartet (US)
Olivia De Prato • Lauren Cauley Kalal • Victor Lowrie Tafoya • Tyler Borden
The Mivos Quartet, “one of America’s most daring and ferocious new-music ensembles” (The Chicago Reader), is devoted to performing works of contemporary composers and presenting new music to diverse audiences. Since the quartet’s beginnings in 2008 they have performed and closely collaborated with an ever-expanding group of international composers representing multiple aesthetics of contemporary classical composition.
Program
George Lewis, String Quartet 2.5, “Playing With Seeds” (2017) 18’
Matthew Ricketts, In Partial View (2015) 14’
Sofia Gubaidulina, String Quartet No. 4 (1993) 12’
Black Dog Quartet (Vancouver)
See Thursday, October 18 for details about the quartet.
Program
Ridley Wallace, Live Alive (2018) § °
Russell Wallace, Weave in Three Sections (2018) § °
V.E. Levitt, Wooden Tables; Fake Men (2018) § °
Raven Chacon, Double Weaving (2014) 9′
§ World premiere.
° Composed as part of Raven Chacon’s Native American Composer Apprentice Project.
There will be an open rehearsal today with Black Dog String Quartet, 2:30-4PM. Free an open to the public.
Join us in the salon after the concert on Saturday for a post-show reception, co-hosted by the Consulate General of Italy in Vancouver.
Reception sponsor: BOSA Foods
SPECIAL EVENTS
Raven Chacon (solo) + Mass Marriage
Wednesday 3 October 2018, 8PM
Deep Blue (255 East 2nd Avenue)
Presented by Deep Blue and Vancouver New Music
Quartetti Remix
Friday 19 October 2018
Show starts at 11PM
Deep Blue (255 E 2nd Ave.)
By donation.
Festival musicians and local electronic artists get together for an after-show of remixes and improv for strings and electronics.
Featuring members of Black Dog String Quartet, Quartetto Maurice, Jerzy Kapłanek (Penderecki String Quartet), Alanna Ho, Lee Hutzulak, Stefan Smulovitz.
Indigenous Youth String Quartet Project with Raven Chacon
1 – 4 October 2018
Native Education College
Free – space is limited, registration required.
In advance of this year’s festival, Quartetti: a festival of string quartets (October 18-20), composer and performer Raven Chacon (Navajo) will lead a 4-day composition workshop for Indigenous youths (25 and under) who are interested in musical composition.
New Mexico-based composer and performer Chacon will lead this 4-day workshop (October 1 – 4, 2018), which will develop students’ musical literacies and enhance creative narrative music-making.
Pieces created during the workshop will be premiered at Quartetti by Black Dog String Quartet.
Raven Chacon is a composer of chamber music, a performer of experimental noise music, and an installation artist. Chacon has presented his work in different contexts at Vancouver Art Gallery, La Biennale di Venezia – Biennale Musica, Musée d’art Contemporain de Montréal, San Francisco Electronic Music Festival, Chaco Canyon, Ende Tymes Festival, 18th Biennale of Sydney, The Kennedy Center, The Whitney Biennial and documenta 14. He lives and works in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Co-presented with Native Education College
Media sponsor: Georgia Straight and CiTR/Discorder.
