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World class quartet returns to BYU-Idaho

by Bonnie Barlow
BAR01049@BYUI.EDU
Scroll Staff

Photo courtesy of Public Relations
In 1998 the Penderecki String Quartet charmed Rexburg with their performance at Ricks College. The ensemble will return to delight BYU-Idaho audiences with two performances Jan. 15 and 16 in the Barrus Concert Hall at 7:30 p.m.

The performances will feature different repertoire each night. The PSQ will play works by W.A. Mozart, Ellen Taafee Zwilich and Johannes Brahms on Wednesday, and Franz Haydn, Ludwig van Beethoven and Bela Bartok on Thursday.

Tickets are available for purchase at the Manwaring Center Ticket Office, $1 for students and $6 for the general public. At the door student tickets will be $2.

In conjunction with the performance the PSQ will hold a four-day residency with student string quartets from BYU-I. The annual residency was begun five years ago by Ted Ashton of the music department and featured the Penderecki String Quartet, according to a recent BYU-I press release.
“They were our first residency five years ago and [they] have been anxious to return ever since,” Ashton said. “We look forward to them sharing their expertise —they are a world renowned quartet and will be a tremendous motivation for our students.”

The quartet was founded in Poland in 1986, taking their name from pre-eminent Polish composer Krysztof Penderecki, who urged the collaboration. The quartet is comprised of Jeremy Bell and Jerzy Kaplanek on violins, Christine Vlajk on viola, and Paul Pulford on cello.

Since that time, the PSQ has grown in popularity and prestige performing on stages world-wide. Their recording of Brahms’ “Piano Quintet” with pianist Lev Natachenny has received similar accolades, as have their numerous additional recordings.

Penderecki’s live performances have been lauded as “ardent and sensitive, with detailed articulation and a warmly focused sound,” by the Toronto Globe and Mail.

The quartet presently hails from Ontario, Canada, where they are involved year-round in the education of young musicians at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo. Since their affiliation, the string program at the university has become one of Canada’s most prestigious.