Guelph Musicfest presents the Penderecki Quartet

Event Description

Celebrating its 40th anniversary, the Penderecki String Quartet returns to Guelph Musicfest. PROGRAM: Beethoven Quartet No. 8 in E minor, Op. 59, No. 2 (“Razumovsky”); Penderecki String Quartet No. 3, “Leaves of an Unwritten Diary” (2008); Dvořák Piano Quintet No. 2 in A major, Op. 81. Friday June 19 at 7:30 pm at the Guelph Youth Music Centre, 75 Cardigan St., Guelph. This is the final concert of the Spring series in Guelph Musicfest’s 20th Anniversary Season!

Friday June 19 at 7:30 pm at the Guelph Youth Music Centre, 75 Cardigan St., Guelph.

Jerzy Kaplanek violin, Jeremy Bell violin, Christine Vlajk viola, Katie Schlaikjer cello, with guest pianist Ken Gee.

PROGRAM: Beethoven Quartet No. 8 in E minor, Op. 59, No. 2 (“Razumovsky”); Penderecki String Quartet No. 3, “Leaves of an Unwritten Diary” (2008); Dvořák Piano Quintet No. 2 in A major, Op. 81

Celebrating its 40th anniversary, the Penderecki String Quartet returns to Guelph Musicfest. The PSQ began its career as winner of the Penderecki Prize at the National Chamber Music Competition in Łódź, Poland in 1986. Now based in Waterloo, Ontario, where it has 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 the 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). The PSQ's international performing schedule has included appearances in New York (Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall), Amsterdam (Concertgebouw), Hong Kong (Academy for the Arts), Los Angeles (REDCAT Hall at Disney Center), St. Petersburg (Sheremetev Palace), the Adam Festival in New Zealand, and throughout Europe in Rome, Madrid, Paris, Belgrade, Prague, Krakow, Vilnius, and Zagreb.

The PSQ has also toured extensively in Mexico, Australia, Venezuela, Brazil, Colombia, and across Canada. Dedicated educators, the PSQ have been recent guests at Bloomington, Indiana University’s String Academy; the Beijing Conservatory; the University of Southern California (Los Angeles); the University of British Columbia in Vancouver; and at their partner universities in Osnabrück, Germany and Lyon, France.

To this day, the PSQ is a devoted champion of the music of our time, having premiered over 100 new works from composers in Canada and abroad. Penderecki Quartet's large discography includes over three dozen recordings, including the chamber music repertoire of Beethoven and Brahms on both the Marquis and Eclectra labels, as well as the first Canadian release of the six Béla Bartók quartets. Their disc of Marjan Mozetich’s “Lament in the Trampled Garden” won the 2010 JUNO Award for Best Composition. In October 2013, the PSQ worked with Maestro Krzysztof Penderecki on his Third Quartet (2008) and performed it at Symphony Space in New York City on the occasion of his 80th birthday. This was followed by the recording of Penderecki’s Third Quartet along with quartets of Norbert Palej on the Marquis label. In 2022, the PSQ was featured in Howard Shore’s soundtrack to David Cronenberg’s film Crimes of the Future.

The Penderecki Quartet has performed with diverse artists such as Atar Arad, Jeremy Menuhin, Stewart Goodyear, James Campbell and has recently appeared with jazz saxophonist Jane Bunnett, jazz pianists Egberto Gismonti, Don Thomson and David Braid, pipa virtuoso Ching Wong, Dancetheatre David Earle, Pentaedre Wind Quintet, actor Colin Fox, and New York turntable artist DJ Spooky. The Penderecki Quartet continue to be active members of the Faculty of Music at Laurier University, where they have built the string program to be one of the top programs in Canada, attracting an international body of students. Their annual Quartetfest at Laurier is an intensive study seminar and concert series that has featured such ensembles as the Tokyo, Fine Arts, Lafayette, Miro, Ying, and Ariana String Quartets. 

This is the final concert of the Spring series in Guelph Musicfest’s 20th Anniversary Season!

Location of the Guelph Youth Music Centre event