Quantum Ensemble
The Quantum Ensemble is a group in residence in the Auditorio de Tenerife, which has established itself as one of the main chamber music collectives in Spain. The ensemble is distinguished by an ambitious collection of programmes that combine a contemporary repertoire with works from the last three centuries. Since its founding, the instrumental group has shown a firm commitment to the promotion of musical creation, which has been reflected in the premiere of works written by composers Laura Vega, Gustavo Trujillo, Juan Manuel Ruiz, Gustavo Díaz-Jerez, Rubens Askenar, Kuzma Bodrov and Leonardo Balada.
From their inception, the Quantum Ensemble has offered new perspectives regarding the programming of a lesser known repertoire. Beyond that, it is worth mentioning that a considerable number of arrangements have been created for the group, which have been enthusiastically received by their public. Among other adaptations, the most relevant are Bartók’s The Miraculous Mandarin, arranged by composer Arnon Zimra for violin, clarinet, two pianos and percussion; the Clarinet Concerto by Einojuhani Rautavaara, reduced for clarinet, two pianos and percussion by Gustavo Trujillo; and the arrangement created by Pablo Díaz, Schéhérazade by Rimsky Korsakov, for violin, clarinet, cello and piano four hands.
The flexibility of the Quantum Ensemble allows them to collaborate regularly with prestigious national and international soloists and chamber ensembles, such as Asier Polo, Maxim Rysanov, Frederieke Saeijs, Alissa Margulis, Tatiana Samouil, Emil Rovner, Óscar Sala, Cecilia Bercovich, Javier Negrín, Tim Gill, Romain Guyot, the Minetti String Quartet, the Lendvai String Quartet, the Elias String Quartet, the Spanish Brass and the Fauré Quartett.
The Quantum Ensemble has always distinguished itself by its efforts to bring music to their public by creating complicities and meeting points between the members of the ensemble, the music they play and the audience. This spirit has motivated the musicians to make it their habitual practice to address the audience from the stage before each performance, offering a brief explanation that contextualizes the work and brings about a more intimate understanding of it. In keeping with this effort, the pre-concert talks that the Quantum Ensemble offers before each concert are often given by experts on the works to be performed, experts such as Arturo Reverter, Víctor Durà-Vilà, Miguel Ángel Marín, Martín Llade, Juan Lucas and Carlos Santos.
Through an ambitious programme of pedagogical activities, designed specifically by such specialists in the field of the dissemination of classical music as Marina Hervás, Belén Otxotorena and Eva Sandoval, the Quantum Ensemble also means to approach a younger audience. Likewise, the group also believes in the need to share the experience of chamber music with those who, due to social and economic circumstances, feel remote from or directly excluded from the experience of classical music. Accordingly, groups from ONCE, Trisomicos 21, ASPERCAN (Association Asperger Canary Islands), Pro-Childhood (EduCaixa), and many others have been invited to the ensemble’s rehearsal sessions.
The Quantum Ensemble supports the next generation of performers by organizing master classes at the Conservatorio Superior de Música de Canarias. Some of the collaborators with the group that have participated in this activity are Miguel Ituarte (piano teacher at MUSIKENE), Yuval Gotlibovich (viola teacher at ESMUC), Asier Polo (cello teacher at MUSIKENE and the Conservatory of the Italian Svizzera), Dirk Mommertz (chamber music teacher at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München) and Donald Grant (chamber music teacher at the Royal Northern College in Manchester). Finally, among these pedagogic tasks, we must underline the one led by Cristo Barrios, a founding member of the group, whose main objective is the development of the performance capacity of students through the introduction of interdisciplinary educational innovations, among which are the use of free improvisation, and the use of conceptual tools from the contemporary philosophy of art.
Season 19/20:
News
Quantum Ensemble, the chamber music ensemble resident in Auditorio de Tenerife, will give seven concerts in their 2019/2020 season. In addition to international performers, they are also inviting ensembles, singers, choirs plus a dancer to round off their offer. The group is led by its founding musicians, Cristo Barrios and Gustavo Díaz-Jerez. The first concert, Vínculos, will take place on 17 October at Auditorio de Tenerife’s Sala de Cámara.
The ensemble, who has a modern, more flexible, and warmer approach to the interpretation of classical music, is calling in international musicians like cellist Tim Gill, violinist Priya Mitchell, clarinettist Romain Guyot, violinist Frederieke Saeijs, pianist Rolf Hind and ensembles like Elias String Quartet, Fauré Quartett and Lendvai String Trio. We will also have the chance to listen to soprano Anna Dennis, mezzo soprano Marta Fontanals-Simmons and baritone Tristan Hambleton.
Pre-concert talks are reinforced this season. They are free of charge and are held at the same place of the concert one hour before it starts. The talks look into the repertoire, its contexts and the guest musicians, and will be given by personalities like the manager of Scherzo magazine, Juan Lucas; the director of the music programme of Fundación Juan March, Miguel Ángel Marín; the University of Leeds lecturer, Víctor Durà-Vilà; or the director and presenter of the RNE show Entre dos luces, Carlos Santos.
Vínculos brings together composers Arnold Schoenberg, Alexander Zemlinsky and Gustav Mahler, three figures who through their co-existence in time and space in the Vienna of the late 19th century and early 20th century illustrate the extraordinary creative wealth of this Austrian city.
The second concert in the season will be Fricciones, on 22 November, featuring the performance of dancer Carmen Macías. The repertoire will confront creative styles and personalities in two pair of composers whose biographies overlap in space and time: Benjamin Britten and Harrison Birtwistle; and John Cage and Aaron Copland.
The end of the year brings Texturas, on 19 December. The unquestionable protagonist of this concert is the piano quartet Fauré Quartett, with a special programme that includes compositions by George Enescu, Gabriel Fauré and Paul Dukas.
Espejos is on in February 2020, featuring three works which are most unusual in current repertoires. These are very different compositions by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Francis Poulenc and Bohuslav Martinů. Lendvai String Trio is playing in this concert.
Quantum Ensemble’s next concert is Estructuras, on 20 March, with three compositions spanning three centuries, an evidence of the time and stylistic ambition of the Tenerife ensemble’s repertoire. It also features the premiere of a piece composed by Gustavo Trujillo expressly for this concert.
Voces comes on 23 April with a programme that makes a contrast between outstanding compositions by Gioacchino Rossini with the work of two 20th century Italian composers: Luigi Nono and Salvatore Sciarrino.
Finally, Quantum Ensemble’s last concert this season is Prisma to be held on 14 May. They will be counting on Camerata Lacunensis, conducted by José Herrero and eleven clarinets, which are needed to perform Steven Reich’s New York Counterpoint. The event also includes works for mixed choir with and without piano by Samuel Barber and George Crumb’s composition for two pianos and two percussionists.
Quantum Ensemble is part of the Education and Social Area of Auditorio de Tenerife with their new didactic concerts for schoolchildren and their usual outreach activities, which offer sensory work sessions to bring music to people in a different way, also used as a means of expression. They carry out these activities with different social groups included people with functional diversity, at risk of exclusion, users of penitentiaries, etc.
Tickets for all these concerts, which are held at 7:30 pm at Auditorio de Tenerife’s Sala de Cámara are available through Auditorio’s usual sale channels: at the box office from 10:00 am to 7:30 pm, Monday to Saturday except holidays, via www.auditoriodetenerife.com or by phone on 902 317 327.
Quantum Ensemble, group resident in Auditorio de Tenerife, closes the 2018/2019 season on Thursday, the 9th at 7:30 pm with Claroscuro. The concert also features two of the founding members of the ensemble, clarinettist Cristo Barrios and pianist Gustavo Díaz-Jerez with the Austrian string quartet Minetti. An explanatory talk by RTVE’s Radio Clásica musicologist Eva Sandoval will take place at Sala de Cámara in Auditorio de Tenerife an hour before the concert starts.
The programme of this concert invites us to reflect on two complex creative personalities who have produced two of the most important catalogues in the history of music: Mozart and Shostakovich. The two quintets we are going to listen to – Mozart’s clarinet and Shostakovich for piano – are pieces of great transparency and emotional depth.
Tickets can be purchased at Auditorio de Tenerife box office from 10:00 am to 7:30 pm, Monday to Saturday except holidays, on www.auditoriodetenerife.com or calling 902 317 327.
Cristo Barrios explains that “this is particularly so in the case of Mozart, whose piece is considered to be one of the masterpieces of the chamber music repertoire of all times: classical music aesthetics raised to one of its highest points in terms of sensitivity and expressive subtlety. The contrast is evident if you think about how close it is with the creative process of Così fan tutte (1790), in Mozart’s case, and Symphony nº 7 (1941), known as Leningrad, in the case of Shostakovich”.
“The contrast between, on the one hand, the textures and the emotions in Shostakovich’s quintet, so translucent at times, and the symphony that is generally associated to the siege of Leningrad during the Second World War, on the other hand, is evident”, the clarinettist explains. Though not quite as obvious from the surface of music, the contrast between Mozart’s quintet and the opera that crowns the cycle of collaborations with librettist Da Ponte is equally deep. It is a summary of the cynical and stark view that the philosophy of the Enlightenment -so fashionable at the time it was composed- has of human nature.
On the other hand, while in the clarinet quintet there is no truth other than that of its moving, deep feelings, in Così fan tutte nothing is actually what it seems to be and all the expectations of honesty, loyalty and commitment are truncated. It is in these intense and significant contrasts where one can appreciate the creative versatility and ambition of the composers whose chamber pieces are included in this concert”, Cristo Barrios adds.
Since it was set up in 2003, the Austrian quartet Minetti has won the most prestigious competitions for string quartets: Haydn Competition in Vienna, Schubert Competition in Graz, and Rimbotti Competition in Florence in addition to Austria’s Grosses Gradus ad Parnassum award. In the 2008/09 season, Minetti was Rising Star at ECHO (European Concert Hall Organization), which meant the beginning of a great career. They have performed at Musikverein in Vienna, Salzburg’s Mozarteum, Wigmore Hall in London, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Barcelona’s Palau, Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, Philharmonie in Berlin and Colon, etc. They have also toured America, Australia, Japan and China. Their members are Maria Ehmer violin; Anna Knopp, violin; Milan Milojicic, viola, and cellist Leonhard Roczek.
Quantum Ensemble is increasing their activities in Auditorio de Tenerife’s Educational and Social Area, which has the collaboration of Fundación Cepsa and Obra Social “la Caixa”. So, at 11:00 am on Thursday, the 9th they are also welcoming 270 secondary school children from six municipalities on the Island.
Besides, as part of their outreach actions, at 5:00 pm on Wednesday, the 8th they are offering a sensory musical session with the help of Obra Social “la Caixa” volunteers. Finally, on Friday, the 10th, as part of their teaching activities, clarinettist Cristo Barrios is giving a performance class for students of the Conservatorio Profesional and the Superior de Música de Santa Cruz de Tenerife, institutions that collaborate in this activity.
Quantum Ensemble, resident at Auditorio de Tenerife, is dedicating its next programme, “Retrato” [Portrait], to West Side Story composer Leonard Bernstein. Also, the concert -to take place at Sala de Cámara on Thursday, the 11th at 19:30 pm includes the premiere of a new work by Gustavo Díaz-Jerez, which he composed expressly for Quantum Ensemble. The composer and pianist is also giving a talk an hour before the concert starts to explain the context of the programme. Admission to the talk is free.
The three members of the ensemble, Díaz-Jerez (piano), Cristo Barrios (clarinet) and David Ballesteros (violin), will be joined by the wind quintet Spanish Brass Luur Metalls, made up by Juanjo Serna (trumpet), Carlos Benetó (trumpet), Manuel Pérez Ortega (horn), Inda Bonet (trombone) and Sergio Finca (tuba).
The programme features two of the few chamber music Bernstein composed: his Violin and Piano Sonata and his Clarinet and Piano Sonata. Although written early in his career, both pieces, “confirm Bernstein’s skill in a music genre that he unfortunately never had time to go back to”, Cristo Barrios explains.
Another piece included in the concert is the transcription for brass quintet of his most popular work, West Side Story. The influence Latin American music had on the North American composer is evident in this musical, which is an adaptation by Arthur Laurent of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. The Spanish Brass Luur Metalls will be performing the transcription of the main numbers of Bernstein’s work, which has been especially done by composer Jack Gale for the group.
Díaz-Jerez’ work will be played by violin, clarinet, horn, piano and electronic. In Cristo Barrios’s view, this decision “is, in itself, a microcosmos of the acoustic reality of a Symphony orchestra, having the piano as percussive instrument, as it has been conceptualised in 20th century music: a real challenge for the composer’s creativity, the skills of the instrumentalists and the readiness to be surprised of our audience”.
Tomorrow, [Wednesday, the 10th] at 5:00 pm Quantum Ensemble is holding their outsource activity at Sala de Cámara. Thanks to the collaboration of volunteers of Obra Social “la Caixa”, the musicians will be giving a sensory session with a group of people with Down Syndrome belonging to Asociación Tinerfeña de Trisómicos 21.
Included in their learning section, on Friday, the 12th, clarinettist Cristo Barrios will give a Performance Class for students of the Conservatorio Profesional and Conservatorio Superior de Música de Santa Cruz de Tenerife, institutions that facilitate this activities, which are both part of Auditorio de Tenerife’s Educational and Social Area, with the collaboration of Fundación Cepsa and Obra Social “la Caixa”.
Tickets can be purchased through Auditorio de Tenerife usual sale channels: at the box office from 10:00 am to 7:30 pm, Monday to Saturday except holidays, via www.auditoriodetenerife.com or calling 902 317 327.
Quantum Ensemble, Auditorio de Tenerife’s resident group, dives into other art forms with their concert Artes, designed to highlight the possible relationships of music with other arts. The repertoire includes pieces by Franz Schubert, Enrique Granados, Magnus Lindberg and Robert Schumann which are inspired by painting, literature, film, and music too. Auditorio de Tenerife’s Sala de Cámara is the venue for this concert to be held at 7:30 pm on Thursday, 21st.
Accompanied by one of Quantum Ensemble’s founding musicians, clarinettist Cristo Barrios, the concert features soprano Anna Dennis, Tatiana Samouil violin, Yuval Gotlibovich, viola, Iván Siso cello and Javier Negrín piano. Rubens Askenar, a young Canarian composer based in London, doctor and teacher in composition at the Royal Academy of Music in London, will give a free talk to offer a context for the concert one hour before it begins.
Artes starts with Der Hirt auf dem Felsen (The Shepherd on the Rock), a famous lied by Schubert for soprano, clarinet and piano whose first four stanzas and the last one, were written by poet Johann Ludwig Wilhelm Müller, while the fifth and sixth are by Karl August Varnhagen von Ense. It is followed by Goyescas, a piano suite by Enrique Granados in which, although his intention is not to build a musical tale on a specific painting by Goya, he does describe the general atmosphere of his painting style.
After the break, Quantum Ensemble goes on to film. Finnish composer Magnus Lindberg was so impressed by Buster Keaton’s film Steamboat Bill, Jr. that in 1990 he decided to create a piece for clarinet and cello that tries to express the action of the film and follow its plot. Finally, Schumann’s Piano Quartet op. 47, which has a strong influence from Beethoven’s String Quartet op. 127. They are both in E flat Major and use similar structures. Schumann’s quartet starts with a Sostenuto assai, just like Beethoven’s.
As part of their activities for Auditorio de Tenerife’s Educational and Social Area, Quantum Ensemble is now also giving school concerts with the collaboration of Fundación Cepsa and Obra Social “la Caixa”. At 11:00 am on Thursday, the 21st they will welcome 200 secondary school children from six different schools in La Laguna, Puerto de la Cruz and Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
Also, at 5:00 pm tomorrow, [Wednesday, the 20th] under their Outreach programme, they welcome a group of people with eating disorders with the help of voluntaries of Obra Social “la Caixa”.
Finally, regarding their learning activities, on the 22nd clarinettist Cristo Barrios is giving a Performance class to students of Conservatorio Profesional and Superior de Música de Santa Cruz de Tenerife, which are collaborating institutions.
Tickets for the concert can be booked at Auditorio de Tenerife box office from 10:00 am to 7:30 pm, Monday to Saturday, on www.auditoriodetenerife.com or calling 902 317 327.
Quantum Ensemble, Auditorio de Tenerife resident group sets One thousand and One Nights to music with the concert Shéhérazade, which ison at 7:30 pm on Thursday, 21st at Sala de Cámara. The programme offers a stimulating stylistic contrast with pieces by Szymanowski, Ravel and Rimsky Korsakov related to the heroine of this medieval Middle Eastern tale.
The concert features soprano Sarah Fox and six musicians: Alissa Margulis (violin), Francisco García (flute), Cristo Barrios (clarinet), Emil Rovner (cello), Miguel Ituarte (piano) and Gustavo Díaz-Jerez (piano). Barrios and Díaz-Jerez are two of Quantum Ensemble funding members, together with David Ballesteros.
This time pianist Miguel Ituarte will be discussing Shéhérazade an hour before the concert starts at Sala de Cámara. Admission to the talk is free.
Shéhérazade, the character and narrator of One thousand and one nights has been a source of inspiration for many composers and the origin of many musical adaptations, including the three pieces in this programme. Masques for piano (1915-1916) is one in a series of three compositions by Karol Szymanowski based on literary works; Shéhérezade, which opens the work; Mythes (1915) about Tristan and Isolde and Métopes (1915) on Don Juan.
Shéhérazade is also the title of two works by Maurice Ravel: an overture which is considered to be his first orchestral composition and a series of songs -also included in this concert- which have become well-liked pieces in the French musician’s repertoire, both in its orchestral and chamber versions. This piece by Ravel is strongly influenced by Russian composers, mainly by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov, whose symphonic poem is particularly relevant. This is no surprise since the Russian composer’s Shéhérezade is probably the best-known musical response to this emblematic literary character.
Quantum Ensemble once again includes a music arrangement -made by Pablo Díaz this time- to offer this great piece by Rimsky-Korsakov in a chamber version. This arrangement closes a concert made up of highly stimulating, contrasting compositions which at the same time are linked together by one of the most fascinating stories in universal literature.
As part of the outreach work of Quantum Ensemble, at 5:30 pm on Wednesday, 20th a session will introduce music to a group of La Casita, in collaboration with “la Caixa” volunteers. This is a Barcelona-based project which is managed in Tenerife through a programme of Hermanas Oblatas La Casita, which offers help and training to women related to prostitution and/or victims of sexual exploitation dealings.
Also, on Friday, 22nd as part of their training, clarinettist Cristo Barrios is giving a Performance class for students of Conservatorio Profesional and Conservatorio Superior de Música de Santa Cruz de Tenerife, which collaborate in this activity.
Tickets for the concert can be booked via the usual channels of Auditorio de Tenerife: at the box office from 10:00 am to 7:30 pm, Monday to Saturday, on www.auditoriodetenerife.com here or calling 902 317 327.
The QB subscription is also available on Auditorio’s website and at the box office. It offers an additional 15% discount on the standard ticket price for Quantum Ensemble and Orquesta Barroca de Tenerife concerts in the present season.
Auditorio de Tenerife resident group Quantum Ensemble, is going to La Laguna University’s Paraninfo for their concert Despedida [Farewell] on Thursday, 22nd at 7:30 pm. They Will be playing String Quintet in C major, one of the last compositions by Franz Schubert, and Quartet for clarinet and string trio, by Krzysztof Penderecki.
David Ballesteros (violin), Adrián Marrero (violin), Cristo Barrios (clarinet), Lander Etxebarria (viola), Asier Polo (cello) and Iván Siso (cello) are the musicians who will be playing at the University’s Paraninfo. An hour before the concert, there will be a talk in the same venue by Juan Manuel Ruiz, composer, essayist, music critic and Member of the Real Academia Canaria de las Bellas Artes [Royal Canarian Academy of Fine Arts].
Finished two months before he died in 1828, String Quintet in C major is one of Franz Schubert’s last compositions. Ever since it was premiered in 1850, there has been speculation about it being a farewell; particularly because of the depth of its contents and the moment it was composed but also because of the unusual instrumentation. According to Cristo Barrios, “Schubert avoids adding a second viola to the traditional string quartet, as Mozart and Beethoven had done, and adds a second cello instead, possibly with the aim of getting a deeper sound”. Barrios highlights that “the quintet is fragile and vulnerable, feelings dear to Schubert and the Romantics in general”.
Krzysztof Penderecki’s Quartet for clarinet and string trio according is strongly influenced by the mood of Schubert’s quintet, and more widely by the musical personality of Alban Berg, according to Penderecki himself. “Therefore, the piece connects emotionally with the expressive tone of the 19th century, Schubert being its greatest exponent, while aesthetically is fully rooted in the 20th century”, Cristo Barrios explained.
Tickets can be bought at Auditorio de Tenerife box office from 10:00 am to 7:30 pm, Monday to Saturday; on the website www.auditoriodetenerife.com on this link or calling 902 317 327. You can also buy them at Paraninfo box office in La Laguna University one and half hours before the show starts. Students will enjoy a special discount for this concert, in addition to the usual offers at Auditorio de Tenerife.
Also, as part of the outreach work Quantum Ensemble usually carries out, a group at risk of social exclusion will attend one of the rehearsals to enjoy a didactic session with the musicians. This week, an association of people with autism will have a sensory session on Wednesday, 21st at 5:00 pm at the Paraninfo. On the day of the concert, Friday 23rd, Cristo Barrios, founding musician of Quantum Ensemble, is giving a Performance Class to students of the Conservatorio Profesional and Conservatorio Superior de Música de Santa Cruz de Tenerife, institutions that collaborate with this activity.
The Cabildo presented the sixth season of Quantum Ensemble on Monday, 15 October at a press conference. The new season of this Auditorio de Tenerife resident ensemble includes seven concerts, the first of which - Apocalipsis - is to take place on Wednesday, 17th at 7:30 pm at Sala de Cámara. The Island Director for Culture, José Luis Rivero, and the Quantum Ensemble musicians, Cristo Barrios, Gustavo Díaz-Jerez and David Ballesteros, explained the new programme which, in addition to the concerts, includes talks, master classes for Conservatory students and rehearsals opened to groups at risk of social exclusion.
José Luis Rivero stated that “Auditorio de Tenerife is very proud of Quantum Ensemble, a catalyst for following projects, like Orquesta Barroca de Tenerife and Lava dance company”. “Since it was set up in 2013, Quantum Ensemble has always been a quality collaborating group that approaches classical music in a more flexible, friendly manner”, Rivero explained, to then add that “Quantum is a great musical reality in our country and abroad, which has an influence on our community where they teach but also learn”.
Pianist Gustavo Díaz-Jerez, who was recently awarded the Composición Musical award by Fundación Martín Chirino, said that “we, as Canarian people, are proud to be able to offer our art to the audience this way”, and pointed out that “we’re one of the few ensembles in Spain to carry out community activities”.
Clarinet player Cristo Barrios went over the season concerts and highlighted that “we’ve followed our own taste in the programme and have included contemporary music from the 20th and 21st centuries, premieres and Canarian composers”.
Finally, violinist David Ballesteros admitted that “Quantum Ensemble’s concerts are a good opportunity for people who are not familiar with this type of music”. “We’ve got a big responsibility when we invite groups who don’t usually have access to music or whose education has not put them in touch with it. Both these groups and us benefit from this relationship”, he explained.
In their first season concert, Apocalipsis, they will play Quartet for the End of Time, by Olivier Messiaen, which was composed during the 2nd World War at a concentration camp and premiered in one of the barracks. The three founding members of Quantum Ensemble plus the cellist Ángel Luis Quintana will use a rare instrument, the theremin, to be played by Lydia Kavina, granddaughter of Léon Theremin’s first cousin.
The second concert, Despedida [Farewell], will take place on 22 November at Paraninfo of Universidad de La Laguna and will include pieces by Schubert and Penderecki. The last show in the year is on 20 December, Ecos, a map of Scandinavian music that includes the performance of mezzosoprano Marta Fontanals-Simmons and the Coro Juvenil de Auditorio de Tenerife. Shéhérazade, a homage to the narrator and heroine of One thousand and one nights, opens 2019 on 21 February. We can enjoy Artes on 21 March, a programme designed to highlight how different works of art and different art forms relate to one another. On 11 April Retrato [Portrait] includes the chamber music by composer Leonard Bernstein along with the Spanish Brass Luur Metalls. The season closes on 9 May with Claroscuro, that includes Vienna quartet Minetti and will focus on great masters in the history of music: Mozart and Shostakovich. Each concert has guest musicians and singers invited by the members of the Ensemble to suit the needs of the repertoire.
In addition to the season concerts, Quantum Ensemble also performs outside Tenerife and takes part in the Festival de Música de Canarias with two shows. Quantum Ensemble’s main differentiating feature is their modern approach to classical music, turning it into a more friendly and flexible art form. In addition to master classes, sessions for groups and before-the-show talks, this ensemble offers close contact between the audience and the musicians, sharing their views before the concert starts and at the interval.
Musicians Cristo Barrios, Gustavo Díaz-Jerez and David Ballesteros are not only the funding members of the ensemble but they are also the core of the group. The community activity of Quantum Ensemble consists of sensory sessions that help to approach music in a different way and as a tool of musical expression to groups who are at risk of social exclusion, physically and intellectually-disabled people, the elderly, prison users, etc. These activities are part of the Learning and Community areas of Auditorio de Tenerife, which enjoy the cooperation of Fundación Cepsa and Obra Social “la Caixa” that also offer their volunteer service in these sessions.
Every Friday, after the concert, Quantum Ensemble gives a Performance Class, designed for instrumentalists and singers, students of Conservatorio Profesional y Superior de Música de Santa Cruz de Tenerife and collaborating companies and institutions. Cristo Barrios leads the workshop in which he seeks to reflect on the role of the interpreter in the creative musical process, as well as develop the creative abilities in students. José Luis Rivero also mentioned that the season brings a new feature: the QB Package, which offers an additional 15 per cent discount for the 2018 concerts by Orquesta Barroca de Tenerife and Quantum Ensemble. Tickets and packages can be bought at the Auditorio de Tenerife box office from 10:00 am to 7:30 pm Monday to Saturday, via the internet on www.auditoriodetenerife.com or calling 902 317 327.
The Auditorio de Tenerife resident chamber music group, Quantum Ensemble, is giving their last performance in the 2017/2018 season at the Auditorio Antonio Lecuona of Tenerife Music Conservatoire. The event, “Transgression”Transgression”, is taking place on Thursday, 17 May at 7:30 pm. Admission is free and invitations can be picked up either at the Auditorio de Tenerife box office or at the Conservatoire.
The ensemble is made up of the following musicians: Cristo Barrios (clarinet), David Ballesteros (violin) and Gustavo Díaz-Jerez (piano). On this occasion, they welcome three guest performers: Javier Negrín, piano, and Carlos Llácer and Francisco Díaz, percussion.
The programme includes Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring and The Miraculous Mandarin by Béla Bartók. Two ballets which are full of imagination and cruelty, and which were both viewed as shocking and transgressing when they were first performed. The programme is rounded off with the first performance of a piece that Laura Vega has expressly composed for Auditorio de Tenerife resident chamber ensemble.
As usual in Quantum Ensemble’s events, there will be a talk before the concert to learn more about the pieces to be listened to. This time, Gustavo Díaz-Jerez will meet us at the Conservatoire at 6:30 pm.
The Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky depicts the ritual sacrifice of a maiden who is forced by her tribe to dance to death in order to gain the benevolence of the gods. Its first performance took place in Paris in 1913 and has gone down in history as one of the most notorious failures. The critics described it as “an incomprehensible raucous succession of sounds and noise”.
Béla Bartók’s The Miraculous Mandarin tells the story of a young woman that seduces a mandarin who is robbed and suffocated by some tramps. His body glitters mysteriously before dying. Its premiere in Cologne in 1926, the audience felt so offended that the police had to intervene and its performance was temporarily banned.
The concert prompts us to reflect on how masterpieces are eventually accepted, in spite of the rejection their being radical and original caused in the first audiences.
The chamber music group resident at Auditorio de Tenerife, Quantum Ensemble, is currently on tour in Spain with their show “Zíngaros” [Hungarian Gipsies]. The concert will be held on the island at 7:30 pm on Thursday, the 12th and it features Madrid viola player Cecilia Bercovich and Gran Canaria cellist Ángel Luis Quintana. They are both joining the members of the Tenerife ensemble -David Ballesteros, violin, Cristo Barrios, clarinet and Gustavo Díaz-Jerez, piano- in their tribute to Hungarian composers.
Quantum Ensemble started their tour on Monday, the 9th at Auditorio Fundación Ávila, to then continue on Tuesday at Círculo das Artes de Lugo, travelling to Gijón on Wednesday the 11, to finally end the week at Sala de Cámara of Auditorio de Tenerife Adán Martín with both guest musicians. As usual, there will be a pre-concert talk to discuss the repertoire, with David Ballesteros this time.
This programme pays homage to Gipsy-Hungarian music, through a selection of works representing the use some composers made of this fertile musical tradition. The identification of national popular music and Gipsy music was common in 19th century Hungary, as shown in the work of great composers like Franz Liszt. It was only in the early 20th century that ethno-musicological studies, as carried out among others by Béla Bartók, that both musical realities were differentiated, leading Hungarian musicians to reassess the relationship between both musical heritages.
The concert “Zíngaros” will start with Hungarian Rhapsody no. 9, S. 379 (Carnival in Pest) by Franz Liszt (1811-1886) to go on with Contrasts Sz. 111, BB 116 by Béla Bartók (1881-1945). After a break during which we’ll have the chance to chat with the musicians, the repertoire will end with Quartet in G minor nº 1, op. 25 by Johannes Brahms (1833-1897).
Tickets can be purchased here.
On Friday, the 13th Quantum Ensemble is giving a Performance Class, targeted at instrumentalists and singers, students at Conservatorio Profesional and Superior de Música de Santa Cruz de Tenerife, institutions that collaborate in this activity. The workshop starts at 6:00 pm and is given by Cristo Barrios. Its goal, among others, is to reflect on the role of the performer in the music creative process and the development of creative skills in students.
The Festival de Tenerife is hosting Quantum Ensemble’s concert ‘Zares’ [Tsars] at 7:30 pm on Friday, 17 November at Círculo de las Bellas Artes. Cristo Barrios, David Ballesteros, Irina Peña, Yuval Gotlibovich, Macarena Pesutic, Natalia Díaz and David Barrera will be playing Tchaikovsky and two composers connected with Tchaikovsky’s Conservatoire in Moscow, Tanayev and Bodrow, who are performing a premiere. Throughout the week, the members of Quantum will do outreach activities with different groups.
The concert revolves around the influences and synergies that took place in tsarist Russia, which turned Moscow into the capital of ballet. Piotr Ilich Tchaikovsky (1840–1893) has a leading role in this concert with his String Sextet in D minor (Souvenir from Florence), a nickname that makes it programmatic, that is, the composer tries to convey metamusical ideas in the score; in this case, his experience in Florence while he was composing The Queen of Spades. A vigorous and extremely demanding work for performers which the composer dedicated to St. Petersburg Chamber Music Society in answer to his being appointed honorary member of the association.
Moscow Conservatory was part of Tsarist power and patronage of the arts whose director and composition teacher was Sergey Taneyev (1856-1915), a disciple of Tchaikovsky’s who did a great job in conveying the heritage of his master to the following generation of Russian composers: Prokofiev, Scriabin and Rachmaninov, among others. His Trio in B minor for violin, viola and cello is also included in the concert. In it, he shows his admiration for the best Russian musical tradition, a pleasing post-Romantic piece in which the instruments display their expressiveness and hold a harmonious conversation that leads to consensus.
The programme also features the premiere of a work by Kuzma Bodrov, current composition professor at Conservatorio Tchaikovsky de Moscú. One of Quantum Ensemble’s missions is to encourage new creation and to make the user’s experience unique by premiering works at national and world level.
Regarding their outreach activities, they are holding a social activity with Proyecto Hombre on Wednesday, 15 November (Círculo de Bellas Artes). Improvisation with Manolo Rodríguez and the students of the Escuela Coral de Tenerife (Auditorio de Tenerife) is also taking place. Activities on Thursday, the 16th and Friday, the 17th will be carried out at the Círculo de Bellas Artes: on Thursday, Cristo Barrios is giving a Performance Class with students of Conservatorio Profesional de Música de Canarias and Conservatorio Superior de Santa Cruz de Tenerife; the latter are offered an open rehearsal in the afternoon.
Also on Friday, 17 November at 6:30 pm, Marina Hervás, doctor in Philosophy and collaborator at Festival de Canarias 2016, will talk about Quantum Ensemble’s ‘Zares’, which this time features Cristo Barrios, clarinet; David Ballesteros, Irina Peña, Yuval Gotlibovich, violins; Macarena Pesutic, viola; Natalia Díaz and David Barrera, cellos. Peña, Pesutic and Barrera play at Sinfónica de Tenerife and they have collaborated with Quantum several times. For her part, Natalia Díaz is a cellist at Orquesta de Euskadi and this is her first time with the group while Gotlibovich is one of the most outstanding violists in his country.
The mission of Quantum Ensemble is to bring music close to our time by creating connections with composers from other periods -namely Romanticism- to establish a fruitful and coherent dialogue to portray, the best way possible, the evolution of Western classical music. They play to a wide range of audiences giving concerts that include comments on the works plus talks, workshops and their involvement in the projects of Auditorio de Tenerife’s Educational and Social Area, in addition to working closely with Tenerife Danza Lab ‘s project “Danza en Comunidad”.
Tickets can be purchased at Auditorio de Tenerife’s box office from 10.00 am to 7.30 pm Monday to Saturday; two hours before the concert starts, via the internet on www.auditoriodetenerife.com or calling 902 317 327.
Cristo Barrios – clarinet
He has given recitals at Carnegie Hall (New York), Wigmore Hall and Cadogan Hall (London), Palau de la Música (Barcelona and Valencia), Konzerthaus (Vienna and Berlin), Concertgebouw (Amsterdam) and National Auditorium (Madrid). As a chamber musician he has shared the stage with the Brodsky, Arditti, Endellion, Elias and Minetti quartets. In as a soloist highlights include his debut with the Mariinsky Symphony Orchestra (Valery Gergiev). He has worked with composers Einojuhani Rautavaara, Helmut Lachenmann, Kaija Saariaho y Esa-Pekka Salonen and has given master classes at the Amsterdam Conservatoire, Sibelius Academy (Helsinki), Liszt Academy (Budapest), University of the Arts (Zürich), Strasbourg Conservatoire, Norwegian Academy of Music and Cologne Conservatoire. He is a doctor in performative musicology (Universidad Complutense), honorary associate of the Royal Academy of Music (London) and a teacher at the Centro Superior Katarina Gurska and at Universidad Alfonso X El Sabio (Madrid).
David Ballesteros – violin
Violinist in bandArt, he also carries out activities for people with special needs or who risk marginalization as head of its area of social integration. He is a member of London Symphony Orchestra and he usually performs and records both classical repertoire and film music with them (Star Wars, Harry Potter, among others). He has collaborated with groups like Danzalab, Lisarco Danza and Barrios Orquestados. In 2009 he premiered the Violin Concerto by José Brito with the Sinfonietta of Paris. Ballesteros has taught at Simón Bolívar Orchestra in Venezuela, New World Symphony, Jove Orquesta Nacional in Catalunya, Joven Orquesta Nacional de España and the Guildhall School of Music in London. He is currently a teacher at the prestigious Verbier Festival (Switzerland).
Part of the programme of the Festival de Tenerife, Auditorio de Tenerife will be hosting two of the first three season concerts of Quantum Ensemble, group resident at Auditorio. The first one, ‘Deconstrucción’[Deconstruction], will be held on Wednesday, 18 October at Sala de Cámara; the second, ‘Zares’[Tsars], is on Friday, 17 November at Círculo de Bellas Artes de Santa Cruz de Tenerife and the third concert, ‘Ídolos’[Idols], will take place at Auditorio de Tenerife’s Sala de Cámara on Thursday, 21 December. All three concerts start at 7:30 pm.
This first part of the season was presented at a press conference this morning which included the presence of José Luis Rivero Plasencia, Island Director for Culture, Education and Artistic Units of Cabildo de Tenerife; Cristo Barrios, clarinet, and Gustavo Díaz-Jerez, piano, members of the Quantum Ensemble trio. The guest artists for ‘Deconstrucción’ on 18 October at Sala de Cámara Joaquín Torre, violin, and Ángel Luis Quintana, cello, also talked to the press.
The Island Director for Culture mentioned that in their fifth season, Quantum Ensemble is now a stable and established group which brings classical music to new audiences, who are increasingly younger -in fact, we’ve noticed regeneration.
Pianist Gustavo Díaz-Jerez said that the first concert is an approach to the German universe, even though Mauricio Kagel was born in Argentina. But his compositional background is well-rooted in his adoptive country. He announced that Trio III by Kagel is a premiere in Spain, “an easy to understand contemporary work that is based on tradition, as proven by the fact that it was composed for the Bonn Beethovenfest”.
Cristo Barrios talked about the two other programmes, stressing the fact that they have included Russian music, “a tradition of Quantum’s given its excellent quality”. He also mentioned the premiere of Kuzma Bodrov’s work and revealed there will be another one in the second part of the season, “because commissioning works is an essential trait of Quantum”. Finally, he highlighted how exceptional the performers of ‘Ídolos’ are: Maxim Rysanov and Asier Polo. Cellist Ángel Luis Quintana expressed his gratefulness and stated that “it’s a pleasure and it makes me incredibly proud to be part of one of Quantum’s project, because of their human and musical quality”. He revealed that Kagel’s work is “rock, heavy, depth, Romanticism… it’s got it all!”. Lastly, Joaquín Torre, violin, pointed out Quantum’s outreach work: “This project is deeply-rooted in the Canarian community”.
Quantum Ensemble brings us music of our time while also creating connections with composers of other periods –fundamentally from Romanticism- to establish a coherent dialogue and illustrate the evolution of Western classical music. They offer their audiences concerts that include comments on the pieces, talks, workshops. They are also involved in projects of the Educational and Social Area of Auditorio de Tenerife, in addition to working closely with Tenerife Danza Lab’s project Danza en Comunidad. The titles of Quantum’s concerts are evocative, prompting the audience to an aesthetic experience as during the concert images related to the works and the composers are screened.
The first concert, ‘Deconstrucción’, focuses on a dialogue between Mauricio Kagel and the last member of the First Viennese School, Ludwig van Beethoven. In the 1970s Kagel (1931-2008) started to direct his work towards the deconstruction of the language that musical tradition in the West inherited from the classical period; this is why most of the pieces he composed in the late 1980s -categorised as postmodern- follow an approach in which tonality is the starting point.
This is the case of his Trio III in two movements (2006-2007), which in this programme has been paired with Beethoven’s Septet in E-flat major op. 20, one of the most emblematic pieces of his classical period, which is offered here with arrangements by the composer for clarinet, cello and piano. So, this programme gives us a recent composition that establishes a creative dialogue with a young Beethoven who was closer to Mozart and Haydn, than to his own version of Romantic maturity.
Before the concert, there will be an introduction to these works by Leandro A. Martín, composition lecturer at Conservatorio de Canarias. The performers at Sala de Cámara are: Joaquín Torre, violin, he currently teaches at Real Conservatorio de Madrid; Cristo Barrios, clarinet; Ángel Luis Quintana, cello; and Gustavo Díaz-Jerez, piano.
The second concert is taking place on Friday, 17 November at one of the group’s alternative venues, Círculo de Bellas Artes, to present ‘Zares’. The concert revolves around the influences and synergies that took place in tsarist Russia, which turned Moscow into the capital of ballet. Piotr Ilich Tchaikovsky (1840–1893) has a leading role in this concert with his String Sextet in D minor (Souvenir from Florence), a name that makes it programmatic; a vigorous and extremely demanding work for its performers. Moscow Conservatory was part of Tsarist power and patronage of the arts whose director and composition teacher was Sergey Taneyev (1856-1915), a disciple of Tchaikovsky’s who did a great job in conveying the heritage of his master to the following generation of Russian composers: Prokofiev, Scriabin and Rachmaninov, among others. The concert includes his Trio in B minor for violin, viola and cello, which is an example of the admiration for the best of the Russian musical tradition. The programme also features the premiere of a work by Kuzma Bodrov, current composition teacher at Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory.
On 16 November, Marina Hervás, doctor in Philosophy and collaborator at Festival de Canarias 2016, will talk about Quantum Ensemble’s ‘Zares’, which this time features Cristo Barrios, clarinet; David Ballesteros, Irina Peña, Yuval Gotlibovich, violins; Macarena Pesutic, viola; Natalia Díaz and David Barrera, cellos. Peña, Pesutic and Barrera play at Sinfónica de Tenerife and they have collaborated with Quantum several times. For her part, Natalia Díaz is a cellist at Orquesta de Euskadi and this is her first time with the group while Gotlibovich is one of the most sought-after violists in his generation.
For his part, on 21 December, Víctor Durà-Vilà, lecturer in aesthetics at the University of Leeds and visiting lecturer at London’s King’s College will discuss ‘Ídolos’ at Sala de Cámara in Auditorio de Tenerife. This programme makes clear the influence of the great maestros of the past in present composers. Through two extraordinary pairings, the subtle connection between admiration and creation will be explored.
So, from the perspective of György Kurtág’s unique language (b. 1926), Hommage à R. Schumann, can be easily associated with Märchenerzählungen by Robert Schumann (1810-1856), both composed for clarinet, viola and piano. Similarly, half-way between tradition and modernity, Nachtstück for clarinet, cello and piano by Jörg Widmann (b. 1973) is close to the sensitive, at times dramatic, character of Brahms’s Trio op. 114, a piece that was originally written for clarinet, cello and piano, although we’re here presenting its version for viola, cello and piano.
It will be performed by Cristo Barrios, clarinet; Maxim Rysanov, viola; Asier Polo, cello and Gustavo Díaz-Jerez, piano. Rysanov, in Cristo Barrios’s words, “is considered to be one of the most outstanding viola players at present and he is probably the best-established performer to have played with QE so far”, while Asier Polo is one of the most international Spanish performers apart from a “a great friend of Quantum Ensemble’s”. A Christmas gift loaded with talent and energy that will transport the audience to different periods with composers who found their inspiration in their predecessors.
Cristo Barrios – clarinet
He has given recitals at Carnegie Hall (New York), Wigmore Hall and Cadogan Hall (London), Palau de la Música (Barcelona and Valencia), Konzerthaus (Vienna and Berlin), Concertgebouw (Amsterdam) and National Auditorium (Madrid). As a chamber musician he has shared the stage with the Brodsky, Arditti, Endellion, Elias and Minetti quartets. In as a soloist highlights include his debut with the Mariinsky Symphony Orchestra (Valery Gergiev). He has worked with composers Einojuhani Rautavaara, Helmut Lachenmann, Kaija Saariaho y Esa-Pekka Salonen and has given master classes at the Amsterdam Conservatoire, Sibelius Academy (Helsinki), Liszt Academy (Budapest), University of the Arts (Zürich), Strasbourg Conservatoire, Norwegian Academy of Music and Cologne Conservatoire. He is a doctor in performative musicology (Universidad Complutense), honorary associate of the Royal Academy of Music (London) and a teacher at the Centro Superior Katarina Gurska and at Universidad Alfonso X El Sabio (Madrid).
David Ballesteros – violin
Violinist in bandArt, he also carries out activities for people with special needs or who risk marginalization as head of its area of social integration. He is a member of London Symphony Orchestra and he usually performs and records both classical repertoire and film music with them (Star Wars, Harry Potter, among others). He has collaborated with groups like Danzalab, Lisarco Danza and Barrios Orquestados. In 2009 he premiered the Violin Concerto by José Brito with the Sinfonietta of Paris. Ballesteros has taught at Simón Bolívar Orchestra in Venezuela, New World Symphony, Jove Orquesta Nacional in Catalunya, Joven Orquesta Nacional de España and the Guildhall School of Music in London. He is currently a teacher at the prestigious Verbier Festival (Switzerland).
Gustavo Díaz-Jerez – piano
He is one of the greatest exponents in performance and musical creation in Spain. He has performed at Carnegie Hall, Allice Tully Hall, Musikverein, Concertgebouw, etc. In addition, as a soloist he has been conducted by Skrowaczevski, Fischer, Bamert, Lü Jia, Herbig, Encinar and Víctor Pablo, and has played with most of the leading Spanish orchestras, such as the Orquesta Filarmónica de Gran Canaria, the Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerife, the Orquesta de la RTVE, the Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia, etc., and with foreign formations such as the Budapest Festival Orchestra, the Turin Symphony, the Northern Symphonia, the Berliner Simphoniker, etc. He currently teaches at Musikene (Basque Country). He is a doctor in musical arts (Manhattan School of Music) and a full academic member at the Real Academia Canaria San Miguel Arcángel.
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