FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – Award Winning, Forward Thinking String Quartet to Tour in Atlantic Canada!
March 4, 2016
Award Winning, Forward Thinking String Quartet to Tour in Atlantic Canada!
HALIFAX, NS –Recent JUNO Award nominees, the Afiara Quartet, sets their sights on Atlantic Canada with an extensive tour from March 12th – 24th, 2016 presented by Debut Atlantic. Comprised of Valerie Li, first violin; Timothy Kantor, violin; Eric Wong, viola and Adrian Fung, cello, the Afiara Quartet is an ensemble, described as “a revelation” (La Presse) with performances balancing “intensity and commitment” and “frequent moments of tenderness” (Montreal Gazette).
Their engaging and diverse program will feature works by Haydn and Mendelssohn as well as Canadian composers Christos Hatzis and Dinuk Wijeratne. Wijerantne, who happens to be a Debut Atlantic Alumnus, has also been nominated for a JUNO Award for his Two Pop Songs on Antique Poems. These pieces were composed specifically for the Afiara Quartet and are featured on the ensemble’s JUNO nominated album Spin Cycle featuring renowned Canadian DJ Scratch Bastid. They will also be showcased on the quartet’s Debut Atlantic touring program.
The quartet will begin their tour on March 12th with two community concerts. The first will take place at the Musquodoboit Harbour Library in Musquodoboit Harbour, NS at 11:00am and is presented in partnership with Halifax Public Libraries. They will then appear in Glen Haven, NS for a concert presented by Paul’s Hall at 8:00pm. On March 14th they will travel to Happy Valley – Goose Bay, NL for a performance at the Lawrence O’Brien Art Centre, and then on March 17th they perform in Studio 1 at the Confederation Centre of the Arts in Charlottetown, PE at 7:30pm. On March 18th, at 7:30pm, the quartet heads to Moncton NB for a concert presented by the Moncton Community Concert Association and then, on March 19th, they travel to Wolfville, NS for a performance for the Acadia Performing Arts Series at 7:30pm. On March 20th, they appear in Antigonish to give a concert at 8:00pm for the Antigonish performing Arts Series and then will finish their concert tour on March 23rd with a performance in Yarmouth, NS for the Hear! Here! Society.
In addition to their concert engagements, the Afiara Quartet will be working with young students and community string groups and will perform at schools throughout the region. With the support of the Telus Atlantic Canada Community Board they will have a special performance at the Sheshatshiu Innu School in North West River, Labrador, NL. They will also participate in a videoconference session hosted by Newfoundland’s Centre for Distance Learning and Innovation (CDLI) which reaches thousands of students throughout Newfoundland and Labrador and will be available for public viewing around the globe on Wednesday, March 16th, 2016 at 11:30am AST / 12:00pm in NL.
CDLI webcast Link: www.cdli.ca/backstage
Please see the enclosed list of tour dates and artist biographies and come listen to this ground breaking quartet as they journey through Atlantic Canada!
One of the most respected music touring organizations in the country, Debut Atlantic’s first season in 1979 featured then-emerging and still-unknown artists, pianist Jon Kimura Parker, tenor Ben Heppner, and Canada’s Baroque orchestra Tafelmusik.
Full details on Debut Atlantic’s concert seasons and education programs can be found at www.debutatlantic.ca
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For further information, please contact:
Mhiran Faraday – Executive Director or
Erin Sparks – Program Officer
Debut Atlantic
902.429.6812
Concert Schedule – Afiara Quartet
Glen Haven, Nova Scotia
8:00pm, March 12th, 2016
Paul’s Hall
12286 Peggy’s Cove Road
paulshallmusic@gmail.com
https://www.facebook.com/Pauls-Hall-421482261259966/
Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Newfoundland
8:00pm, March 14th, 2016
Lawrence O’Brien Arts Centre
Voisey Drive
709-896-4027
obrienartscentre.ca
Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island
7:30pm, March 17th, 2016
Studio One – Confederation Centre of the Arts
145 Richmond Street
902-628-1864
confederationcentre.com
Moncton, New Brunswick
7:30pm, March 18th, 2016
Moncton Community Concert Association
First Church of the Nazarene
21 Fieldcrest Drive
506-852-4491
monctonconcerts.googlepages.com
Wolfville, Nova Scotia
7:30pm, March 19th, 2016
Acadia Performing Arts Series
Festival Theatre
504 Main Street
1-800-542-8425
pas.acadiau.ca
Antigonish, Nova Scotia
8:00pm, March 20th, 2016
Antigonish Performing Arts Series
Immaculata Hall, St. FX University
902-863-1639
http://people.stfx.ca/msteinit/schedule.htm
Yarmouth, Nova Scotia
7:00pm, March 23rd, 2016
Hear! Here! Society
Th’Yarc Playhouse and Art Centre
76 Parade Street
902-649-2996 / 902-742-8150
Community Engagement – Afiara Quartet
Musquodoboit Harbour, Nova Scotia **This is a public event
11am, March 12th, 2016
Halifax Public Libraries and Musquodoboit Harbour Library
7900 Highway 7
902-889-2227
halifaxpubliclibraries.ca
Newfoundland and Labrador
Sheshatshiu Innu School – Performance
Centre for Distance Learning and Innovation – Webcast
Prince Edward Island
Singing Strings Orchestra – Workshop
Morell Regional High School – Performance
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia Youth Orchestra – Talk
Le Marchant St. Thomas School – Workshop
Melville Heights Retirement Residence – Performance
L.E. Shaw Elementary School – Performance
New Minas Elementary School – Performance
Maple Grove Education Centre – Performance
South Centennial School – Performance
Lockeport Regional High School – Performance
Biography – Afiara Quartet
Profiled by CBC Q, The National, Discovery Channel, and the Toronto Star (“one of the most attention-grabbing concerts of the year”), the Afiara Quartet, an ensemble for the 21st century, is a string quartet defined by its pursuit of beauty, meaning, and growth as musicians and ambassadors for its genre.
Comprised of Valerie Li, first violin; Timothy Kantor, violin; Eric Wong, viola and Adrian Fung, cello, the Afiara Quartet is a dynamic and award-winning ensemble, described as “a revelation” (La Presse) with performances balancing “intensity and commitment” and “frequent moments of tenderness” (Montreal Gazette). After residencies at The Juilliard School and San Francisco State University, the Afiara Quartet is currently the Fellowship Quartet at the Royal Conservatory of Music. The ensemble is winner of the Young Canadian Musicians Award, Concert Artist Guild, Munich ARD, and Banff International String Quartet Competitions, including the latter’s Szekely Prize for the best interpretation of Beethoven. The Afiara Quartet has performed throughout the Americas, Europe, and Asia, at such venues as Carnegie Hall’s Zankel and Weill Halls, the Kennedy Center, Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, Library of Congress in DC, Sao Paulo’s Museum of Modern Art, Pro Musica of San Miguel de Allende, London’s Wigmore Hall, Austria’s Esterhazy Palace, Munich’s Prinz Regenten Theatre, Amsterdam’s Muziekgebouw, and the Royal Library in Copenhagen. Their journey is documented in over 30 commissions of new music, new educational outreach initiatives for school children funded by the Ontario Arts Council, and projects with jazz virtuoso Uri Caine, Latin Grammy Award-winning producer Javier Limon, and innovative scratch DJ, Kid Koala.
As Executive Producers, the Afiara Quartet’s latest project, “Spin Cycle”, is a ground-breaking process that begins with four Canadian commissions by composers Kevin Lau, Laura Silberberg, Rob Teehan, and Dinuk Wijeratne, which is then remixed by renowned DJ Skratch Bastid. The composers then compose to the remixes by writing quartet parts in response, creating an authentic and fully collaborative dialogue, with all three stages stand-alone works in their own right. Classicaliszt writes: “Like a tornado cutting a swath of chaos across cornfields and farmlands, Spin Cycle (Centrediscs) is knocking down those musical silos that once contained and kept classical music and hip hop at more than arm’s length from each other, and allows conversations across a musical void that I never expected to hear filled in.” The recent album release has been nominated for a 2016 JUNO Award.