ORPHEUS STRING QUARTET
Mark Gothoni, Timothy Summers, violin
Emile Cantor, viola; Laurentiu Sbarcea, cello

A truly international ensemble – Finnish violinist Mark Gothoni, American violinist Timothy Summers, Dutch violist Emile Cantor, and Rumanian cellist Laurentiu Sbarcea – the Orpheus Quartet has won 1st prizes at every competition in which it has participated: The Valentino Bucchi International Chamber Music Competition in Rome, in 1988; The Karl Klingler Competition in Munich, in 1990; and the first International Chamber Music Competition of Japan (Osaka), in 1993. As a result, it has received many invitations to perform across Europe, the United States, and Japan.

Since its successful United States debut in 1997, the Orpheus Quartet has given annual tours to great public acclaim, performing in the most prestigious halls, such as Wigmore Hall in London, where it has participated in the Hall’s celebrated Schubert-weekend. The Quartet has toured with longtime friend pianist Menahem Pressler in Germany, the Netherlands, Great Britain, the United States, and Canada. Other chamber music partners include pianists Homero Francesch, Pavel Gililov, Ralf Gothoni and Ulrich Koella, as well as clarinetists José Luis Estelles and Sharon Kam. The Quartet commissions and plays contemporary music and looks to all possibilities for broadening the standard repertoire with interesting and sometimes forgotten compositions.

The Quartet’s performances have inspired The Strad magazine to write in an admiring retrospective: “…one had to marvel at the Orpheus Quartet’s sense of timbre, at its unified view of the music and its ability to create both textural variety and impetus.” In the 2008-2009 season the Quartet is performing in Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Denmark, Finland and the United States, and is giving premieres of the quartets by Luis de Pablo and Aubert Lemeland.

Recordings have been greeted with international acclaim. In 1993 the Quartet was awarded the Grand Prix du Disque de L’Académie Charles Cros for its first recording, issued by the British label ASV, of the eight string quartets by G.F.Malipiero (a world premiere). They also received a Diapason d’Or in 1994 for their Channel Classics disc of the Schubert Quintet in C major with Pieter Wispelwey. To celebrate the release of the two Janácek quartets at Emergo Classics, the quartet gave two different concerts on the same day in the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. The next recording, dedicated to the chamber works of the great Dutch composer Tristan Keuris, appeared in 2002 with Emergo Classics and was chosen as CD of the year by the Dutch book club. Most recently, the quartet has recorded a live concert with four modern instruments built for the occasion by Wolfgang Kury & Karoline Krömmelbein after models of Amati; this will be released, in 2009 and includes music by Haydn, Sibelius and Beethoven.

The Orpheus Quartet also commissioned the great French bowmaker Stéphane Muller to build for the ensemble a quartet of bows; he responded with a beautiful set of bows themed on the four classical elements (Earth, Air, Fire and Water), with which the quartet has performed since 2008.

Since spring 2005 the Quartet has been giving regular master classes at the “Liceo” in Barcelona, and has been invited to teach at the Conservatories of Zurich and San Sebastian, as well as at the Savonlinna Music Academy and Curs International de Musica in Cervera.