Chamber Music Kelowna presents Schumann Quartett

The three Schumann brothers - Mark, Erik and Ken - have been playing together since their earliest childhood. Violist Veit Hertenstein completes the vibrant Schumann Quartett, which has come to be regarded as one of the best in the world. In the 2023-24 season, the ensemble performed the opening concert for the new hall at the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin, appeared at the Dvorak Prague International Music Festival, and gave a concert in Linz in honor of the great patron Elisabeth Sprague Coolidge, among other events. As well, they performed two concerts of works by Aribert Reimann in Madrid on the royal Stradivari instruments, and embarked on a US tour that concluded with a residency in New York City at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. The group has also been the Quartet in Residence at Wigmore Hall in London, playing four concerts in the 2021-22 season.

The Schumann Quartett’s album “Intermezzo” (2018, works by Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Schumann und Reimann, with Anna-Lucia Richter) has been hailed enthusiastically both at home and abroad. It is celebrated as a worthy successor to the award-winning “Landscapes” album, in which the quartet traces its own roots by combining works of Haydn, Bartók, Takemitsu and Pärt. Among other prizes, the latter received the “Jahrespreis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik,” five Diapasons and was selected as Editor's Choice by the BBC Music Magazine. For its previous CD “Mozart Ives Verdi,” the Schumann Quartett was accorded the 2016 Newcomer Award at the BBC Music Magazine Awards in London. In 2020 the quartet expanded its discography with "Fragment," an examination of one of the masters of the string quartet: Franz Schubert.