ConTempo Quartet

Last updated

ConTempo Quartet
Origin Bucharest, Romania
Galway, Ireland
Genres Classical, Contemporary
Occupation(s) string quartet
Years active1995–present
MembersBogdan Sofei, Ingrid Nicola, Andreea Banciu, Adrian Mantu
Website Official website

The ConTempo Quartet is a string quartet founded in Bucharest in 1995 and long-resident in Galway, Ireland, which has held national and regional appointments in Ireland, and performed in a wide range of events in Romania, Spain, Ireland and elsewhere. [1]

Contents

History

The quartet was formed in Bucharest in 1995, by a couple, Adrian Mantu and Andreea Banclu, and Ingrid Nicola and Bogdan Sofei, all attending the same university. Mantu and Banclu had met in a school for gifted musicians when aged 15 and 17, and were a couple, while Nicola and Sofei became a couple while the group were performing in an early concert together in Vienna in 1995. [2] marrying in 2000. [3]

While the members of the quartet were studying in Madrid, they considered applying for a multi-year musical residence in Galway, Ireland. They decided not to proceed but Mantu sent the application anyway, and they were awarded this placement, moving from Romania to Ireland in 2003. They have held the Galway Music Residency’s Ensemble in Residence since then, with a range of duties and activities, from actual performance to work with composers (they have had pieces written specifically for them), recording, public and school workshops, and both teaching in primary schools and working with school musical groups. The group works with classical music, but also various choral works, jazz, dance and traditional Irish music. [1] Among their projects was a 3-year cycle of performances with works from all 27 EU member states. [4]

Following a tender process, the ensemble added a national position as RTÉ's hosted string quartet, including regular performances at the National Concert Hall, from 2013. While holding this position, they were branded as the RTÉ ConTempo String Quartet. As part of the work with RTÉ, they performed two major cycles, by Beethoven and Béla Bartók, at locations around Ireland. [1] [5]

As of spring 2021, the ensemble had delivered more than 1,800 performances across 46 countries, and has performed before Pope John Paul II, the then Prince Charles and Nelson Mandela. The group has worked with other quartets, including The Vanbrugh in Ireland, and the Amadeus, Arditti, Casals and Endellion. [6]

Membership

As of 2020, the group consists of: [1] [7]

By 2020, the group were the only string quartet regularly operating at concert level in Ireland, [1] though two new quartets, the Spero and the Banbha, launched later that year. [6]

Recognition

The quartet has won multiple international musical competition prizes, including first places at the GrosserForderpreise, the Valentino Bucchi competition and the Tunnel Trust Competition in London-UK, the Wigmore Award and the Romanian Musical Critics Union Prize in Bucharest. [7] At the London International String Quartet competition, they won 3rd prize but also the Audience Appreciation prize, the first time that that did not go to the 1st or 2nd prize winners. [1] The four members of the group were awarded honorary doctorates by the University of Galway in 2016, for their performance and educational work. [7]

Personal lives

The group consists of four Romanian-born Irish citizens in two married couples. Banclu and Mantu are from Bucharest; Banclu's parents moved to Rome when she was 16, and she remained in Romania with an aunt. They married in 2000 and have two daughters. [2] Mantu's father died while visiting Ireland in 2009. [2] [1] Sofei and Nicola, born a month apart in Bucharest, and a couple since 1995, married in 2000. They also have two daughters. [3]

See also

Related Research Articles

Christian Wilhelm Berger is a Romanian composer, organist, and a lecturer at the Bucharest Academy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Vanbrugh</span> Irish string group

The Vanbrugh, often styled The Vanbrugh and Friends and previously the RTÉ Vanbrugh Quartet, is an Irish classical musical group. The resident string quartet to Raidió Teilifís Éireann, Ireland's national broadcasting service, until 2013, and collectively artists-in-residence to University College Cork, the Quartet members were also founders of the West Cork Chamber Music Festival.

Keith Pascoe is a musician and conductor from Liverpool, England, best known for his work with musical ensembles such as the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the London Philharmonic, and the RTÉ Vanbrugh String Quartet.

The Camogie All Star Awards are awarded each November to 15 players who have made outstanding contributions to the Irish stick and ball team sport of camogie in the 15 traditional positions on the field: goalkeeper, three full backs, three half-backs, two midfields, three half-forwards and three full-forwards. They were awarded for the first time in 2003 as an independent initiative sponsored by a hotel group and accorded official status by the Camogie Association in 2004.

Enda Walsh is an Irish playwright.

The RTÉ Concert Orchestra is one of the two full-time professional radio orchestras in Ireland that are part of RTÉ, the national broadcasting station. Since its formation as the Radio Éireann Light Orchestra in 1948, the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, has grown from a small studio-based recording group to become an active 45-strong orchestra performing over eighty concerts annually. It is part of RTÉ Performing Groups. The orchestra performs classical, popular and big band evening and lunchtime concerts, covering a range of music from baroque to contemporary.

Ioana Petcu-Colan is an Irish violinist of Romanian origin, currently living in Bangor, County Down, Northern Ireland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mariana Sîrbu</span> Romanian musician (died 2023)

Mariana Sîrbu, also credited as Sârbu, was a Romanian classical violinist and academic teacher, who made an international career performing and recording. She was focused on chamber music, founding the Academica String Quartet in 1968, joining the Trio di Milano in 1985, and founding the Quartetto Stradivari in 1994. She was concertmaster of I Musici from 1993 to 2003. She became professor of violin at the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig in Leipzig in 2002, gave international master classes and was juror for competitions of violin and chamber music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">RTÉ Performing Groups</span> Irish classical orchestra groups

RTÉ Performing Groups was a performance group, operating over many decades, of five classical ensembles that were part of the Irish broadcaster Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ). All but the string quartet are based in Dublin. In January 2022, three of the member groups were moved from RTÉ to aegis of the National Concert Hall by the Irish government. RTÉ continues to host the RTÉ Concert Orchestra.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Flynn (composer)</span> Irish musician

David Flynn is an Irish composer, musician, and the founder and artistic director of the Irish Memory Orchestra. Many of his works music merge the influence of traditional Irish music with contemporary classical music and jazz. He is also a multi-instrumentalist who works across many genres including classical, jazz, rock and traditional Irish music, with guitar being his main instrument.

Frederick May was an Irish composer and arranger. His musical career was seriously hindered by a lifelong hearing problem and he produced relatively few compositions.

Jane O'Leary is an American-born Irish musician and composer who has been living in Ireland since 1972.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ina Boyle</span> Irish composer

Ina Boyle was an Irish composer. Her compositions encompass a broad spectrum of genres and include choral, chamber and orchestral works as well as opera, ballet and vocal music. While a number of her works, including The Magic Harp (1919), Colin Clout (1921), Gaelic Hymns (1923–24), Glencree (1924-27) and Wildgeese (1942), received acknowledgement and first performances, the majority of her compositions remained unpublished and unperformed during her lifetime.

X Factor is a Romanian television music competition that aims to find a new music talent to become a star. The third season began airing on 23 September 2013 on Antena 1. The winner will receive a prize of €120,000.

Edward Swan Hennessy was an Irish-American composer and pianist who lived much of his life in Paris. In his pre-War piano music, he excelled as a miniaturist in descriptive, programmatic music. After joining a group of Breton composers, he developed a reputation as a "Celtic" composer, drawing on his Irish heritage, and writing in a style that was unique in a French as well as an Irish context. Even though he has been almost forgotten after 1950, his music was applauded by contemporary French music critics including Henri Collet, Louis Vuillemin, Émile Vuillermoz and Lucien Chevaillier. In some works, he used jazz elements and took inspiration from funfairs and industrial noise, anticipating trends associated with the group of "Les Six".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">String Quartet No. 2 (Enescu)</span> Chamber music work by George Enescu

The String Quartet No. 2 in G major, Op. 22, No. 2, is a chamber music work by the Romanian composer George Enescu, composed mainly between 1950 and 1951, though it has a lengthy pre-history and received a number of revisions in 1952 and possibly early 1953. The score is dedicated to the American pianist, composer, and arts patron, Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge. A performance of it lasts about 25 minutes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">String Quartet No. 1 (Enescu)</span> Chamber music work by George Enescu

The String Quartet No. 1 in E-flat major, Op. 22, No. 1, is a chamber music work by the Romanian violinist and composer George Enescu, composed between 1916 and 1920. A performance of it lasts about 45 minutes.

Karen Power is a composer whose work spans compositions for orchestras, to sound installations. Power has been known to incorporate everyday sounds into her works.

Bernard Geary was an Irish composer, teacher and pianist.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Dervan, Michael (21 September 2020). "Contempo Quartet at 25: 'I'd would like to think we are a little wiser'". The Irish Times. Retrieved 10 December 2022.
  2. 1 2 3 "Melodies of the heartstrings". The Irish Independent. 10 July 2015. Retrieved 14 December 2022.
  3. 1 2 Smith, Andrea (18 April 2016). "Romanian musicians Bogdan Sofei and Ingrid Nicola - Plucking at the heart strings". The Irish Independent. Retrieved 14 December 2022.
  4. ↑ Staff reporter (25 February 2022). "Unique musical journey coming to a close". The Connacht Tribune. Retrieved 15 December 2022.
  5. ↑ Dervan, Michael (14 December 2013). "Tricky handover as ConTempo Quartet take RTÉ Cork spot from Vanbrugh". The Irish Times. Retrieved 14 December 2022.
  6. 1 2 String Quartets at Triskel. Cork, County Cork: Triskel Arts Centre. 2021. Since its formation in Bucharest in 1995, the quartet has performed more than 1,800 concerts world-wide in 46 countries, including prestigious venues such as... / ...two quartets that were founded in 2020 and the long-established ConTempo Quartet
  7. 1 2 3 Galway Musical Residency. "The ConTempo Quartet". Galway Musical Residency. Retrieved 1 December 2022.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.