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).