Underwriter: Martha Jefferson House

Program

Beethoven	String Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 74 “Harp”
Shostakovich	String Quartet No. 9
Brahms	Piano Quintet

“The Aviv String Quartet is rapidly emerging as one of today’s finest chamber ensembles…An impressive evening that marked the Aviv String Quartet out as a force to be reckoned with.”
The Guardian, London

Artist Biographies

Founded in Israel in 1997 as a private initiative of four young musicians, Aviv String Quartet succeeded to win a series of prestigious prizes: 1st Prize and the Grand Prize in Melbourne Chamber Music Competition, Australia (1999), Top Prize and Critics’ Prize in Bordeaux Quartets Competition, France (2003), 1st Prize at Amadeus Quartet Contest (Heerlen, Netherlands 1999), Special Schubert Prize at Schubert Competition in Graz, Austria (2003), 2nd Prize in Prague Spring Quartets Competition (1998). Aviv was also proclaimed as the “Best Young Ensemble” by the Culture Ministries of Germany (1999) and Israel (2000), and received the special award for the Best Musical Ensemble in Israel (2003).

During the last seven years Aviv Quartet has performed on some of the world’s important stages, including Carnegie Hall. The New School and Lincoln Center in New York, the Kennedy Center and the Library of Congress in Washington, Cincinnati Music Academy, Wigmore Hall and Royal Festival Hall in London, Louvre Auditorium, Chatelet, Sainte Chapelle and Theatre de la Ville in Paris, the Sydney Opera House, Vienna and Stockholm Concert Houses, Cologne Philharmonic, Beethoven House in Bonn, Tonhalle in Zurich etc.; The Aviv has also made several concert tours in the United States, Canada, Brazil, South Africa, China, Australia, Ireland, Latvia and France and has taken part in prestigious festivals such as Lockenhaus and Salzburger Schlosskonzerte in Austria; Obersdorfer, Schwetzingen and others in Germany; Montpelier, Parc Floral, Colmar, Luberon and Aix a Province and others in France; Le Folle Journee (Nantes, Lisbon, Bilbao); Dubrovnik in Croatia; Gotland and Lankoping in Sweden, Oistrakh in Estonia, Jerusalem, Eilat and others in Israel.

The repertoire of the quartet includes about 100 chamber works representing 250 years of chamber composition, from Mozart and Haydn, to all of the Beethoven quartets, the greatest works of the Romantic Period, three generations of Czech music, 20th century composers, a wide range of Russian music, from Tchaikovsky and Borodin to Prokofiev and Shostakovich, whose complete set of 15 quartets and the Piano Quintet are in the process of being recorded by Aviv (seven quartets and the Piano Quintet of Shostakovich were also presented in Wigmore Hall and received an extremely positive review in the April edition of The Strad; the complete cycle of Shostakovich’s quartets were presented in 2007 at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland). Aviv also performs Israeli and international contemporary music by Schnittke, Kancheli, Wisenberg, Kopytman, Brener and others. The Quartet has performed almost all the important quintets, cooperating with both local and international soloists.

The Aviv has given a series of Master Classes in Israel, Sweden, Canada and South Africa; the Quartet and its members were invited to teach at the last meeting of the International Music Academy (Italy, June-July 2006); members of the Aviv Quartet teach at several academies in Israel and abroad.

Recognized as one of the leading collaborative pianists, Robert Kulek performs with some of the foremost musicians of today including Kyung-Wha Chung, Gil Shaham, Nikolaj Znaider, Julia Fischer, Arabella Steinbacher, Daniel Mueller-Schott and Matt Haimovitz.

Mr. Kulek has received high critical acclaim for his work in Europe, North America and the Far East in venues such as The Philharmonie in Berlin, Philharmonie in Cologne, Herkulessaal in Munich, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Musikverein in Vienna, Mozarteum in Salzburg, Tonhalle in Zurich, Victoria Hall in Geneva, Cité de la Musique and Musée du Louvre in Paris, Auditorium de Lyon, Teatro San Carlo in Naples, Teatro della Pergola in Florence, Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa, Tivoli in Copenhagen, Carnegie Hall in New York, Herbst Theatre in San Francisco, Chan Center in Vancouver, Seoul Arts Center in Korea and Casals and Ohji Halls in Tokyo.

His festival appearances have included Schwetzingen, Mecklenburg and Rheingau in Germany, Luzern in Switzerland, Colmar in France, Ravinia in Chicago and the Vancouver Chamber Music Festival.

Robert Kulek has recorded for EMI, Orfeo and Tudor labels. A French Sonata programme recorded with cellist Daniel Mueller-Schott was nominated for the Edison Award and was selected as the CD of the Month in The Strad and BBC Music Magazine. In 2008, a recording of sonatas by Poulenc, Ravel and Fauré with violinist Arabella Steinbacher will be released for Orfeo.

Mr. Kulek was born in Riga, Latvia and emigrated with his family to the United States at the age of 9. He began his musical education in Mannes College of Music with Elena Leonova, continuing at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London with Joan Havill and Yale University with Boris Berman and Claude Frank. He now resides in the Netherlands.

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