Molinari Quartet wraps up concert series

Montreal’s Molinari String Quartet will give the concluding performance May 1 to this season’s 5-Penny New Music Concert Series, according to Robert Lemay, artistic co-director of the series.

Founded in 2004, the concert series features contemporary classical music in Greater Sudbury.

Lemay, a local composer and music instructor at Laurentian University, said the event, held at St. Peter’s United Church, 203 York St., is co-produced with the Silver Birch String Quartet Concerts.

“We decided to share some of the costs and organizing duties,” he said. “This is the highlight of the year for us, and we have had a big season.”

He noted The Molinari String Quartet is one of Canada’s finest chamber ensembles. It was founded in Montreal in 1997 and is named after the acclaimed Montreal artist Guido Molinari.

“The painter, who died in 2004, was noted for his use of vivid modular and contrasting colours that owed their inspiration to American abstract expressionist artists, such as Barnett Newman and Jackson Polluck,” Lemay explained.

“In the spirit of Molinari, the quartet aims to further dialogue and interdisciplinary collaboration among the visual and performing arts.”

The quartet’s members include violinists Olga Ranzenhofer and Frédéric Bednarz, viola player Frédéric Lambert, and cellist Pierre-Alain Bouvrette.

“They are one of the most well-known string quartets in Canada,” Lemay noted. “The ensemble, which specializes in contemporary repertoire, has won numerous awards, including a Juno, 11 Opus awards in Quebec, and a Coup de coeur (award) from the Académie Charles Cros in France,” Lemay noted.

The Juno award was for best classical composition of the year of R. Murray Schafer’s eighth quartet in 2004. Molinari was also nominated at the Junos for best classical album for a solo or chamber ensemble in 2001.

Schafer’s compositions are among the quartet’s most favoured pieces, according to Lemay.

“Schafer is one of the most famous of Canadian composers. He is still alive at age 75 and is based in the area north of Toronto. He always had a great love for the beauty of northern Ontario and wanted to live as close as he could.”

Lemay said the Opus awards are akin to the Junos in the rest of Canada, but are focused only on classical music.

The Molinari Quartet won Opus awards for concert of the year for modern and contemporary music in 2007, concert of the year in Montreal in 2006, and record of the year in 2002.

The French award was for best music for sting quartets featuring Shafer’s seven string quartets in 2004. Molinari is the only quartet to have all of Schafer’s 11 string quartets in its repertoire, Lemay added. Schafer’s string quartet number 11 is on the program and another string quartet by Alfred Schnittke.

One of the featured works in the evening program is Lemay’s own Structures Paysage.

“Commissioned by the Molinari Quartet in 2007, the piece pays homage to the Saskatchewan artist, Eli Bornstein.”

The one movement, 18-minute work explores his artistic passions, Lemay added.

5-Penny New Music concerts this year included piano concerts by Bruce Mather and Yoko Hirota.

Tickets are $20 and $15 for students and seniors, and are available at Black Cat, 96 Durham St. or at the door. For more information, visit www.5pennynewmusic.ca