Penderecki String Quartet

Penderecki String Quartet
Official Website: www.ps4.ca From left to right: Jeremy Bell, violinist, Christine Vlajk, violist, Jerzy Kaplanek, violinist, Jacob Braun, cellist Celebrating their 25th anniversary season, The Penderecki String Quartet has become one of the most celebrated chamber ensembles of their generation. The Quartet’s performing schedule takes them annually to concert stages across the Americas, Europe and Asia. 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). Recent concert appearances include New York City’s Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, Los Angeles’ REDCAT at Disney Hall, and Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw. The PSQ appears extensively in Canada, participating in this country’s foremost concert series such as the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival, Festival of the Sound, the Banff Centre, and Toronto Luminato Festival. Their 25th anniversary season is a highly active one with appearances at festivals in Brazil, USA, Spain, Ukraine, Germany, Poland, China, and guest teaching at the Hong Kong Academy, Indiana University at Bloomington, and their partner university in Osnabrück, Germany. To this day the Quartet is a devoted champion of the music of our time, having premiered over 100 new works from composers in Canada and abroad. This anniversary season sees the Quartet with seven world premieres funded by the Canada Council and the Ontario Arts Council for composers Glenn Buhr, Michael Matthews, John Burge, Piotr Grella-Możejko, Jeffrey Holmes, Marc Sabat, Eric Morin, Norbert Palej, as well as the Canadian premiere of Krzysztof Penderecki’s String Quartet No.3 at Vancouver New Music. The Penderecki Quartet has performed with such eminent classical artists as Martin Beaver, Atar Arad, Antonio Lysy, Jeremy Menuhin, James Campbell and excels in exploring new music collaborators, recently appearing with jazz saxophonist Jane Bunnett, Brazilian jazz pianist Egberto Gismonti, pipa virtuoso Ching Wong, Dancetheatre David Earle, Pentaedre Wind Quintet, actor Colin Fox, and New York turntable artists DJ Spooky and DJ P-Love. Described by Fanfare Magazine as “an ensemble of formidable power and keen musical sensitivity”, the Penderecki Quartet’s large discography includes over three dozen recordings including the chamber music repertoire of Johannes Brahms on both the Marquis and Eclectra labels, as well as the first all-Canadian release of the six Béla Bartók quartets under the auspices of Chamber Music in Napa Valley. Their disc of Marjan Mozetich’s “Lament in the Trampled Garden” won the 2010 JUNO Award for Best Composition. Formed at the Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice, Poland in 1986, the group found quick success as winners of the Penderecki Prize at the National Chamber Music Competition in Łódz , Poland. In the same year, they received scholarships to further their studies as assistants to the Fine Arts Quartet at the University of Wisconsin. In 1991, the Penderecki Quartet moved to Waterloo, Ontario to become the Quartet-in-Residence at Wilfrid Laurier University. Now 20 years later, the Penderecki Quartet continue as active members of the Faculty of Music at Laurier and have built the string program to be one of the top programs in Canada, attracting an international body of students. Jeremy Bell, violinist A native of Toronto, violinist Jeremy Bell has performed as soloist with the Toronto Symphony, the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, the CBC Vancouver Orchestra, the Stony Brook Graduate Symphony, the Amadeus Ensemble, the Nota Bene Period Orchestra and in Arraymusic's performance art productions. As a concertmaster and associate concertmaster, he has made many appearances with the Kitchener- Waterloo Symphony, the New Zealand National Symphony, the Canadian Opera Company and as principal violist with Les Violons du Roy in Quebec City. He earned a B. Mus degree from the University of Toronto, and from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, he received his Masters and Doctor of Music. Dr. Bell is a recipient of the Ontario Arts Council's Chalmers Fund Training Grant and a prize winner in the Eckhardt-Grammatté National competition. He has studied with David Zafer, George Neikrug, Joyce Robbins, Metro Kozak and with members of the Orford, Juilliard, Tokyo, and Orion string quartets. As a member of the Penderecki String Quartet, Dr. Bell is Artist-in-Residence at Wilfrid Laurier University where he teaches violin and chamber music. Described by the Toronto Star as a violinist who 'agitates in the most intelligent and persuasive manner', Dr. Bell has performed extensively in North America and Europe, recently performing at Wieczory Arsenale Festival in Poland, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Is Arti Festival in Lithuania, State Museum of Music in St. Petersburg, Bing Theatre in Los Angeles, Jane Mallet Theatre in Toronto, Paris University 8, Miller Theatre New York City, Georgia State in Atlanta, Casalmaggiore and Rive-Gauche Festivals in Italy, Tovar Festival Venezuela, the Hong Kong Academy, the Shanghai Conservatory and the Chan Centre in Vancouver. Bell has been broadcast on CBC, NPR (USA), RNE (Spain) and NPS (Netherlands) radio and has recorded for CRI, Eclectra, CMC and CBC labels. From 2000-2007, Bell served as the artistic director of NUMUS Inc., a contemporary music organisation in Kitchener-Waterloo where he created several multi-media events at the Perimeter Institute and with Dancetheatre David Earle. Dr. Bell plays an A.S. Bernadel violin (1854). Christine Vlajk, violist Christine Vlajk has graced major concert stages around the world with her dynamic performance style - New York’s Weill Concert Hall at Carnegie Hall, 92nd Street Y and Kennedy Center, Los Angeles County Museum of Art and Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw to name a few. She has held the positions of violist of the Penderecki String Quartet and Artist-in-Residence in viola and chamber music at Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada, since 1997. Previous to that she was a member of the acclaimed Montclaire String Quartet with whom she received first prizes in the Banff International String Quartet Competition, the Chamber Music Yellow Springs Competition, the Coleman Chamber Music Competition and the Carmel Chamber Music Competition as well as Prize for Best Contemporary Performance in the Evian International String Quartet Competition. She was granted the Friedlander Fellowship from the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory. Originally from Denver, Colorado, Ms. Vlajk holds degrees in Viola Performance and Music Education from the University of Colorado (Boulder) and a Masters degree in Viola Performance from the University of Wisconsin (Milwaukee). Teachers and coaches have included Oswald Lehnert, Masao Kawasaki, Jerry Horner, Denes Koromzay, and the Cleveland, Julliard, LaSalle, Takacs, Emerson and Fine Arts String Quartets. She has been guest soloist with the Hamilton Philharmonic and the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra and has performed recitals in Canada, the United States and Germany, premiering viola concertos by Piotr Grella-Mozejko and Karol Gostynski in recent years. As an orchestral player she has held the positions of Principal Violist of the West Virginia Symphony and Assistant Principal of the New Hampshire Music Festival Orchestra as well as participating in the New Brunswick Summer Music Festival. Dedicated to the education of young people, she performed an extensive series of children’s concerts in numerous small communities across Canada and the United States and has given master classes at Yale University, Indiana University, Florida State University and the Glenn Gould Professional School. As a member of the Penderecki String Quartet and the Montclaire Quartet Ms. Vlajk has recorded for the Koch, Leonarda, Eclectra, Marquis Classics and EMI labels. Jerzy Kaplanek, violinist Jerzy Kaplanek has been a member of the Penderecki String Quartet since 1987. With the quartet, and also as a soloist and chamber musician, he performs throughout Europe, Asia, and North and South America. His discography includes a dozen CD's with the Penderecki Quartet, and Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire with the Blue Rider Ensemble. His chamber music partners have been pianists Vladimir Feltsman, Lev Natochenny, Jamie Parker, Janina Fialkowska, Francine Kay, cellist Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, clarinetist James Campbell, and others. He is frequently heard on CBC Radio and in the fall of 1997 was featured soloist at a concert held in the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, as a tribute to Karol Szymanowski. Jerzy Kaplanek was born in Poland in 1965. His music education started at the age of six on piano; at the age of ten he began his violin studies. In 1984, he received a Bachelor of Music degree at the Conservatory in Bytom, Poland. He graduated with a Masters Degree in Arts from the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music, where he studied with Janusz Skramlik, Stanislaw Lewandowski, and Aureli Blaszczok. In 1987, Mr. Kaplanek left Poland to continue his music education in the United States. In 1987-88 he was assistant to Efim Boico of the Fine Arts Quartet at the Chamber Music Institute in Milwaukee. In 1989-90, he was a student of Sylvia Rosenberg in New York City. In 1990-91 he studied at the University of Maryland, where his teachers included Daniel Heifetz, the Guarneri String Quartet and its violinists, Arnold Steinhardt and John Dalley. Pursuing his interest in Baroque performance practice, Mr. Kaplanek has also worked with the Custodian of Period Instruments at the Smithsonian Museum, Jaap Schroeder. Jerzy Kaplanek is presently an associate professor at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, where he teaches violin and chamber music. He plays a copy of the "Kreisler", Joseph Guarnerius del Gesù 1733, made by Luiz B. Bellini (New York 1997). Jacob Braun, cellist A native of Lincoln, Massachusetts, Jacob Braun has been recognized for his expressive, lyrical performances in The United States and abroad. His performances have taken him on concert tours of Italy, France, Korea and China. This past season, Jacob played concerts in Merkin Hall, Roosevelt University with the Chamber Chamber Musicians and Calgary, CA for a UNICEF benefit concert with Canadian prodigy, Jan Lisiecki?. Jacob joined the Penderecki String Quartet in 2009 and is Artist in residence at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Canada. He will begin teaching privately in the fall of 2010. With this ensemble, his schedule is saturated with the great string quartet literature, as well as collaborations with The David Earle Dance Group and multi-media electronic music. Mr. Braun was a founding member of the Biava Quartet for nine years, winning The 2003 Naumburg Chamber Music Award and becoming the youngest ensemble to win this prestigious award. With Jacob, the quartet won top prizes at The 2003 London String Quartet Competition, The 2005 Premio Paolo Borciani String Quartet Competition, The Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and The Coleman Chamber Music Competition. As a member of the Formosa Quartet he performed a three week tour of the UK including Wigmore Hall and performed at the Library of Congress (Stradivari Anniversary Concert), Wigmore Hall and La Jolla’s Summerfest. Jacob has collaborated with members of the Brentano, Calder, Enso, Jupiter, Miami, Shanghai, Tokyo and Vermeer String Quartets.

Official Website: www.ps4.ca

From left to right: Jeremy Bell, violinist, Christine Vlajk, violist, Jerzy Kaplanek, violinist, Jacob Braun, cellist

Celebrating their 25th anniversary season, The Penderecki String Quartet has become one of the most celebrated chamber ensembles of their generation. The Quartet’s performing schedule takes them annually to concert stages across the Americas, Europe and Asia. 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).

Recent concert appearances include New York City’s Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, Los Angeles’ REDCAT at Disney Hall, and Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw. The PSQ appears extensively in Canada, participating in this country’s foremost concert series such as the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival, Festival of the Sound, the Banff Centre, and Toronto Luminato Festival.

Their 25th anniversary season is a highly active one with appearances at festivals in Brazil, USA, Spain, Ukraine, Germany, Poland, China, and guest teaching at the Hong Kong Academy, Indiana University at Bloomington, and their partner university in Osnabrück, Germany.

To this day the Quartet is a devoted champion of the music of our time, having premiered over 100 new works from composers in Canada and abroad. This anniversary season sees the Quartet with seven world premieres funded by the Canada Council and the Ontario Arts Council for composers Glenn Buhr, Michael Matthews, John Burge, Piotr Grella-Możejko, Jeffrey Holmes, Marc Sabat, Eric Morin, Norbert Palej, as well as the Canadian premiere of Krzysztof Penderecki’s String Quartet No.3 at Vancouver New Music.

The Penderecki Quartet has performed with such eminent classical artists as Martin Beaver, Atar Arad, Antonio Lysy, Jeremy Menuhin, James Campbell and excels in exploring new music collaborators, recently appearing with jazz saxophonist Jane Bunnett, Brazilian jazz pianist Egberto Gismonti, pipa virtuoso Ching Wong, Dancetheatre David Earle, Pentaedre Wind Quintet, actor Colin Fox, and New York turntable artists DJ Spooky and DJ P-Love.

Described by Fanfare Magazine as “an ensemble of formidable power and keen musical sensitivity”, the Penderecki Quartet’s large discography includes over three dozen recordings including the chamber music repertoire of Johannes Brahms on both the Marquis and Eclectra labels, as well as the first all-Canadian release of the six Béla Bartók quartets under the auspices of Chamber Music in Napa Valley. Their disc of Marjan Mozetich’s “Lament in the Trampled Garden” won the 2010 JUNO Award for Best Composition.

Formed at the Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice, Poland in 1986, the group found quick success as winners of the Penderecki Prize at the National Chamber Music Competition in Łódz , Poland. In the same year, they received scholarships to further their studies as assistants to the Fine Arts Quartet at the University of Wisconsin. In 1991, the Penderecki Quartet moved to Waterloo, Ontario to become the Quartet-in-Residence at Wilfrid Laurier University. Now 20 years later, the Penderecki Quartet continue as active members of the Faculty of Music at Laurier and have built the string program to be one of the top programs in Canada, attracting an international body of students.

Jeremy Bell, violinist

A native of Toronto, violinist Jeremy Bell has performed as soloist with the Toronto Symphony, the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, the CBC Vancouver Orchestra, the Stony Brook Graduate Symphony, the Amadeus Ensemble, the Nota Bene Period Orchestra and in Arraymusic's performance art productions. As a concertmaster and associate concertmaster, he has made many appearances with the Kitchener- Waterloo Symphony, the New Zealand National Symphony, the Canadian Opera Company and as principal violist with Les Violons du Roy in Quebec City.

He earned a B. Mus degree from the University of Toronto, and from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, he received his Masters and Doctor of Music. Dr. Bell is a recipient of the Ontario Arts Council's Chalmers Fund Training Grant and a prize winner in the Eckhardt-Grammatté National competition. He has studied with David Zafer, George Neikrug, Joyce Robbins, Metro Kozak and with members of the Orford, Juilliard, Tokyo, and Orion string quartets.

As a member of the Penderecki String Quartet, Dr. Bell is Artist-in-Residence at Wilfrid Laurier University where he teaches violin and chamber music. Described by the Toronto Star as a violinist who 'agitates in the most intelligent and persuasive manner', Dr. Bell has performed extensively in North America and Europe, recently performing at Wieczory Arsenale Festival in Poland, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Is Arti Festival in Lithuania, State Museum of Music in St. Petersburg, Bing Theatre in Los Angeles, Jane Mallet Theatre in Toronto, Paris University 8, Miller Theatre New York City, Georgia State in Atlanta, Casalmaggiore and Rive-Gauche Festivals in Italy, Tovar Festival Venezuela, the Hong Kong Academy, the Shanghai Conservatory and the Chan Centre in Vancouver. Bell has been broadcast on CBC, NPR (USA), RNE (Spain) and NPS (Netherlands) radio and has recorded for CRI, Eclectra, CMC and CBC labels.

From 2000-2007, Bell served as the artistic director of NUMUS Inc., a contemporary music organisation in Kitchener-Waterloo where he created several multi-media events at the Perimeter Institute and with Dancetheatre David Earle. Dr. Bell plays an A.S. Bernadel violin (1854).

Christine Vlajk, violist

Christine Vlajk has graced major concert stages around the world with her dynamic performance style - New York’s Weill Concert Hall at Carnegie Hall, 92nd Street Y and Kennedy Center, Los Angeles County Museum of Art and Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw to name a few.

She has held the positions of violist of the Penderecki String Quartet and Artist-in-Residence in viola and chamber music at Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada, since 1997. Previous to that she was a member of the acclaimed Montclaire String Quartet with whom she received first prizes in the Banff International String Quartet Competition, the Chamber Music Yellow Springs Competition, the Coleman Chamber Music Competition and the Carmel Chamber Music Competition as well as Prize for Best Contemporary Performance in the Evian International String Quartet Competition. She was granted the Friedlander Fellowship from the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory.

Originally from Denver, Colorado, Ms. Vlajk holds degrees in Viola Performance and Music Education from the University of Colorado (Boulder) and a Masters degree in Viola Performance from the University of Wisconsin (Milwaukee). Teachers and coaches have included Oswald Lehnert, Masao Kawasaki, Jerry Horner, Denes Koromzay, and the Cleveland, Julliard, LaSalle, Takacs, Emerson and Fine Arts String Quartets.

She has been guest soloist with the Hamilton Philharmonic and the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra and has performed recitals in Canada, the United States and Germany, premiering viola concertos by Piotr Grella-Mozejko and Karol Gostynski in recent years. As an orchestral player she has held the positions of Principal Violist of the West Virginia Symphony and Assistant Principal of the New Hampshire Music Festival Orchestra as well as participating in the New Brunswick Summer Music Festival. Dedicated to the education of young people, she performed an extensive series of children’s concerts in numerous small communities across Canada and the United States and has given master classes at Yale University, Indiana University, Florida State University and the Glenn Gould Professional School.

As a member of the Penderecki String Quartet and the Montclaire Quartet Ms. Vlajk has recorded for the Koch, Leonarda, Eclectra, Marquis Classics and EMI labels.

Jerzy Kaplanek, violinist

Jerzy Kaplanek has been a member of the Penderecki String Quartet since 1987. With the quartet, and also as a soloist and chamber musician, he performs throughout Europe, Asia, and North and South America. His discography includes a dozen CD's with the Penderecki Quartet, and Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire with the Blue Rider Ensemble. His chamber music partners have been pianists Vladimir Feltsman, Lev Natochenny, Jamie Parker, Janina Fialkowska, Francine Kay, cellist Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, clarinetist James Campbell, and others. He is frequently heard on CBC Radio and in the fall of 1997 was featured soloist at a concert held in the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, as a tribute to Karol Szymanowski.

Jerzy Kaplanek was born in Poland in 1965. His music education started at the age of six on piano; at the age of ten he began his violin studies. In 1984, he received a Bachelor of Music degree at the Conservatory in Bytom, Poland. He graduated with a Masters Degree in Arts from the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music, where he studied with Janusz Skramlik, Stanislaw Lewandowski, and Aureli Blaszczok.

In 1987, Mr. Kaplanek left Poland to continue his music education in the United States. In 1987-88 he was assistant to Efim Boico of the Fine Arts Quartet at the Chamber Music Institute in Milwaukee. In 1989-90, he was a student of Sylvia Rosenberg in New York City. In 1990-91 he studied at the University of Maryland, where his teachers included Daniel Heifetz, the Guarneri String Quartet and its violinists, Arnold Steinhardt and John Dalley. Pursuing his interest in Baroque performance practice, Mr. Kaplanek has also worked with the Custodian of Period Instruments at the Smithsonian Museum, Jaap Schroeder.

Jerzy Kaplanek is presently an associate professor at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, where he teaches violin and chamber music. He plays a copy of the "Kreisler", Joseph Guarnerius del Gesù 1733, made by Luiz B. Bellini (New York 1997).

Jacob Braun, cellist

A native of Lincoln, Massachusetts, Jacob Braun has been recognized for his expressive, lyrical performances in The United States and abroad. His performances have taken him on concert tours of Italy, France, Korea and China. This past season, Jacob played concerts in Merkin Hall, Roosevelt University with the Chamber Chamber Musicians and Calgary, CA for a UNICEF benefit concert with Canadian prodigy, Jan Lisiecki?. Jacob joined the Penderecki String Quartet in 2009 and is Artist in residence at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Canada. He will begin teaching privately in the fall of 2010. With this ensemble, his schedule is saturated with the great string quartet literature, as well as collaborations with The David Earle Dance Group and multi-media electronic music.

Mr. Braun was a founding member of the Biava Quartet for nine years, winning The 2003 Naumburg Chamber Music Award and becoming the youngest ensemble to win this prestigious award. With Jacob, the quartet won top prizes at The 2003 London String Quartet Competition, The 2005 Premio Paolo Borciani String Quartet Competition, The Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and The Coleman Chamber Music Competition. As a member of the Formosa Quartet he performed a three week tour of the UK including Wigmore Hall and performed at the Library of Congress (Stradivari Anniversary Concert), Wigmore Hall and La Jolla’s Summerfest. Jacob has collaborated with members of the Brentano, Calder, Enso, Jupiter, Miami, Shanghai, Tokyo and Vermeer String Quartets.