Press Release – Aroha Quartet
Three events in the second week of July mark this occasion, all taking place at St Andrews on The Terrace in Wellington.
The Wellington-based Aroha String Quartet celebrates a double anniversary next month. This year marks the twentieth anniversary of the establishment of the Aroha Quartet, one of Aotearoa’s finest classical chamber music ensembles. It’s also the tenth anniversary of the Quartet’s mid-year ASQ International Music Academy, a week-long string orchestra and chamber ensemble course for student and adult non-professional string players.
Three events in the second week of July mark this occasion, all taking place at St Andrew’s on The Terrace in Wellington. On Wednesday 10 July at 12:15 pm the members of the Aroha Quartet will be joined by former members of the Quartet along with guest tutors and players from ten years of the ASQ Academy to perform music by Boccherini, Arensky and Mozart.
Later that week at 5:30 pm on Friday 12 July the Aroha Quartet, together with NZSO double bassist Oleksandr Gunchenko, will play three exciting works for string quintet by the French composer George Onslow, Auckland-based composer Louise Webster, and Czech composer Antonin Dvorak.
Finally, at a Gala Concert on Saturday 13 July at 5 pm the participants of the tenth ASQ International Music Academy will present small ensemble works by composers such as Boccherini, Beethoven, Vivaldi, Onslow, Schubert and Dvorak. The Academy string orchestra, conducted by NZSO Associate Concertmaster Donald Armstrong, will play the famous ’Night Music from the Streets of Madrid’ by Boccherini and Elgar’s Introduction & Allegro with the members of the Aroha Quartet as soloists.
Entry to all three events is by koha/donation
Aroha Quartet first violinist Haihong Liu said “Back in 2004 four musicians who’d arrived in Aotearoa from China became friends and discovered their common love of playing chamber music together. We dug into our library to find string quartets to play to John Nixon, a friend from New Caledonia. John said to us ‘All you need is a name and a public concert’. So on 4 July 2004 the new Aroha String Quartet gave its official debut to a full house of more than 200 people in a church in Te Aroha.
“Although some of the members of the Quartet have changed over the years we still share that passion for chamber music.” said Haihong.
Ten years ago the Aroha Quartet held its first ASQ International Music Academy in Newtown, Wellington. Space was limited in the community centre where this Academy was held, so some groups rehearsed in other buildings nearby, including the home of one of the Quartet members.
Cathie McCallum, Administrator of the ASQ International Music Academy, said “Each year the ASQ Academy seems to get more exciting than the previous one! It’s an amazing course, and with this year being the tenth I am certain that it will be even more special.
“I am really looking forward to the concert at St Andrew’s on the Terrace at Wednesday lunchtime with many of the former members of the quartet and previous tutors. The Gala Concert is always really special to all the participants and their sense of achievement is very obvious. It’s such a great night!”
Content Sourced from scoop.co.nz
Original url
