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Contempo Quartet

Ensemble Galway, Republic of Ireland 3 Followers
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Chamber Music 09:49 10 years ago10y
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ConTempo String Quartet
Winners of 14 International Prizes
"Polished and professional group … full of exuberance and with a fine sense of ensemble … real sensitivity … exceptional performance"
The Strad/ Wigmore Hall 
Formed in 1995 when students at the Music University in Bucharest, Romania, the ConTempo String Quartet have toured the world extensively and become one of the most celebrated young string quartets performing today.
They studied with the most celebrated string quartets of the world, such as Amadeus, Alban Berg , Tokyo, Emerson, Hagen and Quartetto Italiano.
 
From 1999 to 2002 the ConTempo Quartet was offered a Fellowship at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where each member coached chamber music groups at undergraduate and postgraduate levels and accomplished their research on Beethoven’s String Quartets Cycle under Siegmund Nisel’s guidance.
 
In 2003, after an International audition, ConTempo became Galway’s Quartet-in-Residence on the West coast of Ireland, embarking on a unique project sponsored by the National University of Galway, the National TV Channel TG4 & the Arts Council.
 
ConTempo String Quartet has won a record of 14 International prizes in competitions such as London, Munich, Hamburg, Rome, Graz, Berlin, Bucharest & Prague (1st Prize "GrosserForderpreise" of Konzertgesellschaft München-Germany,1st Prize at Valentino Bucchi competition in Rome-Italy, 1stPrize at Tunnel Trust Competition in London-UK, 1stPrize at Mozart competition in Romania, 2ndPrize at Johannes Brahms International Competition in Hamburg-Germany, Audience Prize and 3rdPrize at London String Quartet Competition in UK, 3rdPrize at Schubert und die Musik der Moderne Competition in Graz-Austria, 3rdPrize at Max Reger Competition in Weimar-Germany, The Wigmore Award) and The Romanian Musical Critics Union Prize in Bucharest.
 
 
ConTempo has toured the world extensively, performing at many major International festivals in Europe, Asia and North America .
 
They performed more than 1400 Chamber Music Recitals in venues and festivals such as: Carnegie Hall in NY, Wigmore Hall, St. John's Smith Square
and St.Martin-in-the-Fields in London, Berliner Philarmoniker, The Waterfront in Belfast, Max Joseph Saal in Munich, Theatre Chatelet and Festival Clasique-au-Vert in Paris, Auditorium in Brussels, Gedai University in Tokio, Opera House in Tel-Aviv, Haydn Festival in Eisenstadt, King’s Lynn Festival (where ConTempo played with London’s Royal Philarmonic Orchestra Elgar’s Introduction and Allegro), Radio France Festival, Berliner Festwochen, Enescu Festival in Romania, NCH in Dublin, San Marino, Toronto, Madrid, Palazzo Quirignale in Rome, Lisbon, Stockholm Concert Hall, Vatican, Amsterdam, Graz, Beijing, Europa Musicale in Munich, the Atheneum in Bucharest and Belfast Festival at Queens.
 
ConTempo had the honor to be invited to perform in front of great world personalities such as the late Pope John Paul II at Castel Gandolfo in Italy, for Prince Charles in UK (in London and Highrove) , for Nelson Mandela, former President of South Africa, the EU Ministers, the Nobel Prize winner Seamus Heaney, for the famous Hollywood actors Angelica Houston, Angela Lansbury, Martin Sheen and Merv Griffin and for the Irish President, Michael D Higgins.
 
Filmmaker Bob Quinn produced a documentary about ConTempo's residency in Galway, "ConTempo Goes West", which premiered at the Galway Film Fest.
 
The quartet has participated in numerous television and radio broadcasts in England (where they recorded quartets by Shostakovich, Debussy, Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Bartok & Constantinescu for BBC), France ( Radio France Musique and TV Mezzo), Italy ( RAI), Austria ( ORF), Germany, Romania ( TVR) and Ireland (Lyric FM, TG4 & RTE).
 
ConTempo recorded the music for Tom Hanks & Steven Spielberg's television drama "Band of Brothers".
 
They composed, arranged and performed the music for the Danish silent film "The Abis" (1910).
 
The quartet also took part in the documentary "Deutschland, Deutschland", an ORF & Sat3 production about Haydn and Siegmund Nissel's lives.
 
Other professional recordings include:
Deutsche SchallPlatten, Mozart & Brahms Clarinet Quintets with Ryo Kondo, released in Japan
Music of Boydel (quintet for baritone, flute & string trio, quartet n.1 and oboe quintet), Dublin, CMC
UNIVERSAL, Music with clarinettist Emma Johnson (Mozart clarinet quintet and Ave Verum),
SONY, "Band of Brothers" Soundtrack, Beethoven
Last year they released a new CD with the famous Irish traditional musicians Mairtin O’Connor & Cathal Hayden (a fusion between Romanian, Irish Traditional and Classical Music)
George Crumb's "Black Angels" Live video recording from Athenuem for TVR
 
ConTempo took part in various projects, working closely and recording the music of many contemporary composers such as Jane O’Leary, Alec Roth, Naresh Sohal, Cristopher Fox, Deirdre McKay, Jennifer Walsh, Ian Wilson, John McLachlan, Ed Benet, Rohna Clark, Graine Mulvey, David Flynn, Rob Canning, John Kinsela, Anne Weissman etc.
 
 
Collaboration with different artists and musical genres is a very important part of ConTempo's musical life. So thats why they are very often seen playing early, renaissance or baroque music. They are also keen on jazz music as well as argentinean & brazilian music where they play on either modern or electric instruments.
 
ConTempo performed alongside well known artists including members of the Amadeus, Vellinger, Arditti , Vanbrugh, Casals, Maggini, Balanescu and Endellion Quartets and Barry Douglas (France/Ireland), Emma Johnson (UK), John O’Conor, Hugh Tinney, Finghin Collins (Ireland), Yuko Inoue (UK),Chen Zimbalista (Israel), Jerome Pernoo (Paris), Peter Donohoe, Martin Roscoe (UK), Gilbert Kalish (USA), Bary Douglas (Ireland), Douglas McNabney(Canada) etc.
 
They've been invited to teach in International solo and Chamber music courses in Ireland (ConTempo Summer School in Galway, Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin, Concorda in Kilkenny, Music on the Shannon etc.), in the UK (Royal Academy of Music, Reading School of Music), in Japan (Gedai University of Music, Tokyo) and in Romania ( Sibiu, Brasov and Bucharest).
ConTempo took part in various composition workshops held by Dublin Institut of Technology, Royal Irish Academy of Music, Contemporary Music Centre, Association of Irish Composers, Dundalk Institute of Technology, Maynooth University , Galway Arts Festival, Icon Arts & Music University in Romania etc.
 
GALWAY RESIDENCY
 
Since 2003, ConTempo have been Quartet in Residence on the West Coast of Ireland embarking on a unique project.
Highlights of ConTempo's residency in Galway include:
 
Attracting internationally known musicians from all genres to Galway and performing collaborative concerts.
 
An annual Summer School, Spring School and Autumn School for young musicians
 
An education programme in County Galway schools
 
Introducing the classical music to primary and secondary schools (ConTempo visited more than 200 schools)
 
Junior & Senior Leaving Cert Programmes (lectures in over 100 schools)
 
An annual ConTempo Summer Festival, which has featured collaborative artists such as Emma Johnson, Martin Lovett, Bruno Giuranna, Hugh Tinney, John Feeley and Maírtín O'Connor.
 
Contemporary Music Centre Projects (ConTempo worked closely , toured and recorded over 50 new string quartets written by Irish composers)
 
Lectures and modules (on subjects as Music history, Contemporary music, Experimenting new technics, Music and media, Film music, Music and human rights, Music and poetry in Italy, Romanian Trad Music etc.) at NUIG, GMIT, DIT, Gedai Tokyo, Icon Arts Romania etc.
 
Apprentice Ensembles scheme (national competition for chamber music groups; three ensembles are invited to Galway and offered scholarships to take part in master classes offered by ConTempo for a year)
 
National composition competitions for both students and well known Irish composers (composers are invited to Galway to discuss and work with ConTempo during a three month period followed by a national tour)
 
ConTempo Festival Orchestra
 
Interacting with musicians from different musical genres (irish traditional, jazz, balkan, Yddish, Klezmer, Tango, electronic etc.)
 
Interacting with other artists (dancers, poets, visual artists, film directors, painters, writers, photographers etc.)
 
Concert series (including Beethoven Cycle, Mozart - Ten Celebrated Quartets, Haydn's year, Shostakovich & Bartok, George Crumb's Black Angels)
 
 
REVIEWS
 
 
"At the end of this concert, I would like to offer my cordial thanks to the musicians of the ConTempo Quartet, who with their sensitivity and skill have offered us a moment of deep aesthetic contemplation. The alternation of serene and lively, dramatic and nostalgic passages has been for all of us an opportunity for involvement and reflection. I wish the talented musicians a successful professional career and an even more satisfying human fulfillment." The Pope Giovanni Paolo II
 
"Polished and professional group … The Mozart was given a delightfully skittish reading, full of exuberance and with a fine sense of ensemble … real sensitivity … exceptional performance" The Strad/ Wigmore Hall
 
" In the ConTempo's typical fashion, risks were taken, and unusual rewards achieved... the sense of something exceptional at work in the music was unmissable in this performance." The Irish Times
 
" … Amazing technique and rhythmic homogeneity …Very impressive way to approach Enescu’s quartet, an extremely difficult work, belonging to the first class quartets of the 20th century … ConTempo succeeding to demonstrate this with great intensity and fervour." Süddeutsche Zeitung
 
"Far and away the most outstanding performance was given by the Con Tempo Quartet, playing Beethoven’s op. 132 …well-balanced tone and firmly articulated rhythms … everyone in the audience was convinced of the superiority of the Con Tempo … there was no doubt that it was the best in the finals." The Times (London International String Quartet Competition)
 
"The string playing was both intimately engaged and subtly but distinctly extrovert. Lively and intricately balanced, the ConTempo worked the gallery acoustic to best advantage, and their sound ranged from a full bodied richness to a searing, almost period-instrument quality ... lucky Galway" The Irish Times
 
"The combination of English clarinetist Emma Johnson and the Galway-based Romanian ConTempo Quartet meant a truly musical gala at Castletown House on Saturday...The ConTempo Quartet were her magnificent partners. How fortunate for Galway to have such a fabulous foursome as its first 'Ensemble-in-Residence'!!" IRISH INDEPENDENT
 
"Debussy's String Quartet ...Masterfully played by the Romanian ConTempo Quartet... The grand finale was Carnival of the Animals by Saint-Saens ... deliciously played in its original chamber version by Peter Donohoe, Martin Roscoe, the ConTempos plus Emma Johnson (clarinet), Laura Jellicoe (flute), Chris West (double bass) and John Abendstern (percussion), its inclusion was a joyous, colorful and delicious irony." Yorkshire Post/The French Impressions, International Fest Leeds
 
"It was a sort of homecoming for composer/singer/songwriter Julie Feeney, playing in the Galway Arts Festival in her home county, and teaming up with Galway's resident ensemble ConTempo for a memorable concert. . .the combination of instruments and voice was inspiring." The Irish Times
 
"The marriage of string quartet and accordion was a happy one, first delicately and subtly ... [then] by turns ethereal and frenzied, with the high, relentless sound of the accordion meeting the lower cello and building to a wild energy." The Irish Times
 
"A group set on pushing the interpretative envelope ... performance full of imaginative daring... ConTempo quartet conveyed..the strong sense of a quartet on form and in its prime." The Irish Times
 
" … a professional string quartet … well-balanced … very good technique … their articulation and phrase are extremely clear." Münchener Merkur
 
" … exceptional concert performed by ConTempo Quartet formed by extremely gifted young musicians, who were rewarded with long stormy applause … the audience was subjugated by their sensitivity and virtuosity." Wildungen Landes Zeitung
 
"I have not heard for a long time even at professional well-established ensembles such a performance, that is at the same time impetuous and well-balanced, tender and rigorous, ingenuous and vivid." Actualitatea Muzicala
 
" … the four musicians have the sense of ensemble, as well as the instrumental and interpretative inspiration that animates and guides them towards an exquisitely special encounter with the music." La Sicilia
 
"I am happy to predict an excellent career for this fine ensemble" Martin Lovett (Amadeus Quartet)
 
ConTempo at Crescent Arts Centre, Belfast
" The concert is being given by the Rumanian ConTempo Quartet, which has been resident ensemble in Galway since 2003. Its style is emotional, unbounded and vibrant – a thousand miles distant from the stuffy image so unfortunately and often so mistakenly associated with chamber musicians.
Opening with George Crumb’s Black Angels quartet proves that there is to be no pussyfooting in this concert – no soft toned easing into the more 'difficult' music the audience is here to sample.
The ConTempo hold back nothing and the performance is exhilarating...I find a real immediacy in the bright, exaggerated extroversion of the ConTempo Quartet’s music making which is as unusual and as refreshing as it is pleasurable."
By Philip Hammond/ Culture NorthernIreland.org
 
 

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