Orford String Quartet

Last updated

The Orford String Quartet was a Canadian string quartet active from 1965 through 1991. They came to be the leading string quartet in Canada, and were well-known internationally. [1] [2]

Contents

Founding

In 1951, Gilles Lefebvre launched a summer music camp for Les Jeunesses Musicales du Canada at Mont-Orford National Park in Quebec. The summer camp developed into the Orford Arts Centre, now Orford Music. [3] Lorand Fenyves, a violinist and teacher then based in Geneva, began teaching at the music camp in 1963. The summer of 1965, two Canadians that Fenyves was teaching in Geneva, Andrew Dawes and Kenneth Perkins, came to study at Orford. With the support of Lefebvre and Fenyves, the two violinists formed a string quartet with Terence Helmer and Marcel Saint-Cyr. Their first concert was on 11 August 1965. The four performers were pleased with the performance, and decided to continue performing together. That fall, when Fenyves became a visiting teacher at the University of Toronto's Faculty of Music, the quartet followed him to Toronto. [4] Fenyves took a permanent position at the university the following year. The quartet began their own association with the university in 1968, and the founding members began teaching at the Faculty of Music in 1972. [1]

Career

From 1965 to 1967, the quartet toured Canada on behalf of Jeunesses Musicales du Canada, with visits to France and Austria, and a debut recital at Carnegie Hall on 22 November 1967.

The quartet continued touring after they began their association with the University of Toronto. [5] They are credited with more than 1,500 concerts across the country, premiere performances of more than 50 Canadian works, and more than 50 recordings. [2] They toured in the United States in 1984. [6]

The Orford Quartet shared first prize in a string quartet competition that the European Broadcasting Union held in 1974. They received the Canadian Music Council Award in 1978 for their recording of the Mendelssohn Quartets No. 1 and 2, and the council's Grand prix du disque in 1981 for a recording of quartets by Beckwith and Schafer then again in 1983 for a recording of the Beethoven string quartets. [1]

Recordings by the Orford String Quartet won three Juno awards in the category Best Classical Album: Solo or Chamber Ensemble:

Both Andrew Dawes and Kenneth Perkins were honoured with Membership in the Order of Canada in 1991. The citation for Dawes reads in part, "His leadership, commitment and endurance were largely responsible for the sustained quality, esteem and respect the [Orford String Quartet] garnered among musicians and audiences alike worldwide." [7] [8]

Scholarship fund

The quartet performed their last two concerts at Music at Sharon in 1991, at Sharon Temple in Sharon, Ontario. The second last concert consisted entirely of the string quartets of R. Murray Schafer. For the final concert, they played exactly the same program as their first concert in 1965. The proceeds of this final concert went toward a scholarship fund administered by the Ontario Arts Foundation. From 1997 to 2012, the fund awarded scholarships to string chamber musicians attending university. The fund now provides a biennial award to young professional string chamber musicians. [9]

Personnel [1]

A movement from Quintet for Clarinet and String Quartet by Johannes Brahms - Op. 115. William McColl and the Orford String Quartet, Andrew Dawes and Kenneth Perkins, violins; Sophie Renshaw, viola; Denis Brott, cello. June 1988.

Selected discography

Related Research Articles

The Aeolian Quartet was a highly reputed string quartet based in London, England, with a long international touring history and presence, an important recording and broadcasting profile. It was the successor of the pre-World War II Stratton Quartet. The quartet adopted its new name in 1944 and disbanded in 1981.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">R. Murray Schafer</span> Canadian composer (1933–2021)

Raymond Murray Schafer was a Canadian composer, writer, music educator, and environmentalist perhaps best known for his World Soundscape Project, concern for acoustic ecology, and his book The Tuning of the World (1977). He was the first recipient of the Jules Léger Prize in 1978.

Ofra Harnoy is an Israeli-Canadian cellist. She is a Member of the Order of Canada. By joining the international artists roster of RCA Victor Red Seal, Harnoy became the first Canadian classical instrumental soloist since Glenn Gould to gain an exclusive worldwide contract with a major record label. She is a five-time Juno Award winner.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canadian classical music</span>

In Canada, classical music includes a range of musical styles rooted in the traditions of Western or European classical music that European settlers brought to the country from the 17th century and onwards. As well, it includes musical styles brought by other ethnic communities from the 19th century and onwards, such as Indian classical music and Chinese classical music. Since Canada's emergence as a nation in 1867, the country has produced its own composers, musicians and ensembles. As well, it has developed a music infrastructure that includes training institutions, conservatories, performance halls, and a public radio broadcaster, CBC, which programs a moderate amount of Classical music. There is a high level of public interest in classical music and education.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brian Cherney</span> Canadian composer

Brian Cherney is a Canadian composer currently residing in Montreal, Quebec.

John Beckwith was a Canadian composer, writer, pianist, teacher, and administrator.

The Juno Award for Classical Album of the Year has been awarded since 1985, as recognition each year for the best classical music album in Canada. It was a split from the prior category for Juno Award for Classical Album of the Year, alongside a separate new category for Classical Album of the Year – Large Ensemble or Soloist with Large Ensemble Accompaniment.

The Juno Awards of 1991, representing Canadian music industry achievements of the previous year, were awarded on 3 March 1991 in Vancouver, British Columbia at a ceremony in the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. Paul Shaffer was the host for the ceremonies, which were broadcast on CBC Television.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Audubon Quartet</span>

The Audubon Quartet (1974-2011) was an American string quartet based at residencies at Marywood College in Scranton, Pennsylvania (1974-1979) and at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia (1980-2001).

Steven Dann is a Canadian violist.

The St. Lawrence String Quartet (SLSQ) is a Canadian string quartet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kenneth Slowik</span> American cellist, viol player, conductor, curator, and artistic director

Kenneth Slowik is an American cellist, viol player, and conductor. Curator of Musical Instrument Collection at the National Museum of American History and Artistic Director of the Smithsonian Chamber Music Society. He took an interest in music and organology from an early age. He studied at the University of Chicago, the Chicago Musical College, the Peabody Conservatory, the Salzburg Mozarteum and, as a Fulbright Scholar, the Vienna Hochschule für Musik, guided by Howard Mayer Brown, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Antonio Janigro, Edward Lowinsky, and Frederik Prausnitz.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Denis Brott</span> Canadian cellist, music teacher and conductor

Denis Brott, SMOM is a Canadian cellist, music teacher, conductor, and founder and artistic director of the Montreal Chamber Music Festival.

Andrew Dawes was a Canadian violinist. He was known for his performances with the Orford String Quartet.

Gary Alan Kulesha is a Canadian composer, pianist, conductor, and educator. Since 1995, he has been Composer Advisor to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. He has been Composer-in-Residence with the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony (1988–1992) and the Canadian Opera Company (1993–1995). He was awarded the National Arts Centre Orchestra Composer Award in 2002.

Coenraad Bloemendal is a Dutch-born Canadian cellist, who has performed, taught and recorded primarily in the field of classical music during a career that has spanned more than four decades.

The Vághy String Quartet is a Canadian string quartet known for its luscious and emotional sound, as talked about by the New York Times, as well as for its numerous performances throughout North America and Europe. Formed in 1965, the quartet has played and premiered many composers. It has also recorded many classical pieces, having a total repertoire of over 160 pieces. The quartet taught throughout Canada and won the 1977 Canadian Music Council award for best recording of the year.

The New Orford String Quartet is a Canadian string quartet formed in July 2009. It is one of Canada's premiere chamber ensembles. The name honours the Orford Arts Centre in the province of Quebec, where the ensemble gave its first public concert, and the original Orford String Quartet that was formed in June 1965 and active until July 1991.

Michael Dussek is an English pianist specialising in chamber music and song accompaniment.

The Penderecki String Quartet is a string quartet, founded in 1986, now based in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Barry J. Edwards; Susan Spier; Robin Elliott (15 December 2013). "Orford String Quartet". The Canadian Encyclopedia . Historica Canada. Retrieved 10 April 2017.
  2. 1 2 Donn Downey (9 August 2000). "Played key role in string quartet". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 16 April 2017.
  3. ↑ "About Orford Music", Orford Music, retrieved 10 April 2017
  4. ↑ Jean Southworth (3 January 1976). "Ten Happy Years of Chamber Music". The Ottawa Journal. Ottawa. p. 37. Retrieved 10 April 2017.
  5. ↑ "Orford quartet lives up to the bravos" . Toronto Star - Toronto, Ont. Ronald Hambleton Nov 9, 1990 Page: D.16
  6. ↑ Ovation . Vol. 5. Ovation Magazine Associates; 1984. p. 6.
  7. ↑ "Order of Canada: Andrew A. Dawes". The Governor General of Canada . Retrieved 25 April 2017.
  8. ↑ "Order of Canada: Kenneth J. Perkins". The Governor General of Canada . Retrieved 25 April 2017.
  9. ↑ "The Orford String Quartet Fund". The Ontario Arts Foundation . Retrieved 25 April 2017.
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.