The 13^th edition of the Cordes en Ballade Festival brightly ended with the students’ concert on July 17^th. This year, quartets of all levels and horizons immersed themselves completely in the festival’s atmosphere, learning to work together, deepening their chamber music knowledge Quartets. And of course everyone could attend concerts of the festival’s renowned guest artists such as Marielle Nordmann, Emmanuel Rossfelder, Laurent Stewart….

Emotion, sharing, and fun were the key words of this edition.

In the continuity of this desire of transmission, a string quartet class will open early January with the collaboration of the “Conservatoire de Lyon – CRR”. Important project to the Debussy Quartet, this new step will provide regular gatherings throughout the year.

Summing up the pedagogical activity of the Debussy Quartet, there will be three meetings this year :

Results of Jurmala 2011 CHAMBER MUSIC, the 12th Competition in Academic Music

The event was a complete success. The 12th Competition in Academic Music Jurmala 2011 CHAMBER MUSIC was held in Jurmala Music Secondary School, with the support of Jurmala Municipality, the State Fund for Culture Capital, SEB Bank, Jurmala Music Secondary School and the Concert Agency „Mūza”. The international jury was presided by Prof. Alexander Bonduryansky (Russia). Other members of the jury were: violinist Anna Vayman (USA), viola player Tim Frederiksen (Denmark) and pianists Natalia Sakkos (Estonia), Normunds Viksne, Janis Maleckis and Gunta Sproge (Latvia).

Founder and Director Stefan Metz was honored during the 30^th anniversary festival this summer, including a gala final concert which featured Metz playing Schubert’s great string quintet with the Casals Quartet. Metz had previously announced that he would be retiring as artistic director of the festival, and would be succeeded by Maarten Mostert. Mostert organized a moving tribute to Metz and his wife Isabelle Bensa at the final concert by providing the entire audience and festival musicians with a Dutch version of the famous “Adieu, Monsieur le Professeur”, which was then sung and played by the standing, capacity crowd as a collective encore to the Schubert Quintet. ECMTA Chairman Evan Rothstein attended the final weekend of the festival and presented Metz with a certificate expressing appreciation "for his inspired leadership, distinguished artistic career, and exemplary devotion to the teaching and the promotion of chamber music."

Take a look at photos in the photo gallery >>

http://www.amadeusonline.net

The September issue of Amadeus features a cd of the Prometeo Quartet playing the Schumann Opus 41 quartets, as well as in depth articles about Schumann, the writing of these quartets, and the career of the Prometeo. Excerpts from the cd can be listened to online:
http://www.amadeusonline.net/mp3/Schu0911.mp3

E-Newsletter No. 5 from the “We Play Music With Friends” Foundation is now online:

Articles by Daiva Stulgyte, Composer Gundega Smite, Juta Berzina, Pille Taniloo, Alexander Kulikov, Evan Rothstein, and Carsten Dürer.

Read the Newsletter >>

http://www.quartetweb.com/site/p/welcome

This website is an international professional resource devoted to string quartet performers and compositions of the last hundred years or so and to connections between them. At its core is a database, although it will present much more.

Among other things, the database lists quartet groups, including who their members have been, and links them to compositions by first performances, recordings, and other information. It includes references and a bibliography, as well as photos, video, and audio, although its basis will remain text.

Overall, it is anticipated to be an Internet community for string quartet information and lore. Because the subject is large and growing, the site is a continual work in progress, with material being added frequently.

Concerning languages which can be used to send information, Dr Paul Rapoport, the creator of this website sent the following:

Short messages mostly with information about quartets I may understand in any European language. (I have an advanced degree in linguistics as well as music.) I'm comfortable reading extended texts in the following, having studied or translated from them:

• English German Dutch
• Danish Swedish Norwegian (either one) Icelandic
• French Spanish Italian Portuguese
• Russian
• Latvian

Extended texts are a problem for now in anything else, including Polish, Finnish, and Romanian, all of which you mentioned, although I wouldn't want that to prevent people from contacting me.

The best for me to write in are English, French, Danish, and German.

14 excellent ensembles from France and Germany participated in the finals at the magnificent College des Bernadins in the center of Paris. The competition is co-organized by Aurélien Bernard (France) and Benedikt Strauss (Germany) with a team of enthusiastic volunteers, and offers non-monetary prizes of concerts, CDs, and workshops. 1^st prize was awarded to the duo Stephenson-Barbin, 2^nd prize to a piano quartet performing Dohnanyi’s Quartet in F-sharp minor, and 3^rd prize was awarded to a young German string trio which played Reger’s Trio op. 77b. The finals, presented as a formal concert, drew an exceptionally supportive full house, about 400 listeners. President of the jury, ECMTA Chairman Evan Rothstein was joined by pianist Simon Zaoui, clarinetist Franck Amet, violinists Eva and Emmanuel Hahn from the Arnon Quartet, and Veronique de Boisséson, musical artistic director for the College des Bernardins.

Program >>

The Fédération nationale des associations de parents d’élèves de conservatoires (FNAPEC) has announced the 2011 winners of its international chamber music competition Musique d’ensembles:

Read more >>

Upgrade of the professional level of teachers of chamber music in

The Latvian academy of music named after Jazep Vitola, on the International master courses of the Latvian young musicians and «Winter master classes for Chamber ensemble teachers

«We play music together with friends»

In this report the basic attention is given to possibilities of improvement the qualification of the chamber ensemble teachers in the Latvian academy of music named after Jazep Vitola (LMA), and behind. The chamber ensemble Department was created in 1959. Its founder, the professor and composer Janis Kepitis (1908-1989) lead it till 1981, later this duty carried out prof. Dajna Vilipa, and since 1991 and on the present time the Dean of the Department is prof. Gunta Sproge. On this Department, which is called since 2002 “Department of chamber ensemble and piano accompaniment”, we have well prepared teachers, who not only continue working, but also develop the traditions, which were set up in the Latvian state conservatory of Jazep Vitola (nowadays music academy, LMA), in State musical college named after Gnessin (nowadays the Russian academy of music named after Gnessin. Prof. Gunta Sproge and prof. Aldis Liepinsh finished Post-graduate course in a class of the prof. George Fedorenko), St.-Petersburg state conservatory named after N.A.Rimsky-Korsakov (Prof. Janis Maletskis finished Post-graduate course in a class of prof. Tamara Fidler) and the Moscow state conservatory named after P.I.Tchaikovsky (Inese Milzaraya finished Post-graduate course in a class of prof. Marina Jashvili). Now we try not only to save these traditions, but also to develop, creating new contacts to foreign musical high schools.

 Articles include the complete text of Gunta Melbarde’s conference at the ECMTA annual meeting in Rome, as well as articles by Hans Erik Deckart, Gunta Sproge, Alexander Kulikov, and Anneli Kuusk.

http://kamerfest.lv/en/content/e-journal-0

Contents

PROFESSOR`S VIEWPOINT

• Practical Advice After a Chamber Ensemble Competition
• Professor Gunta Sproge, Jazeps Vitols Latvian Academy of Music,
• Head of chamber ensemble and piano accompaniment department

GIVING AND TAKING

• Chamber Music as Training in Musical Teamwork
• Professor Hans Erik Deckert, Hamburg/Germany and Copenhagen/Denmark

NEWS FROM ESTONIA

• Chamber music for young musicians
• Anneli Kuusk, teacher of Heino Eller Music School in Tartu/Estonia

TEACHER`S NOTES

• About romanticism. Piano trio op. 49 d-moll by F. Mendelssohn
• Alexander Kulikov, teacher of Musical Institute Kungsvegen in Espoo/Finland

OUR EXPERIENCE

• Teaching musicians to teach chamber music
• Gunta Melbarde, teacher of Jazeps Medi_š Riga 1st Music School

AMMUNITION

• Festivals, Contests, New Music for the Chamber

Read more (press release) >>

• For Violinists Violists and Cellists aged 12-18.

http://music.indiana.edu/precollege/summer/string/index.shtml

June 18 - July 16, 2011

Intensive training in chamber music: two hours chamber music practice 4 days a week, two one hour lessons and one performance masterclass per week

Solo repertoire: 4 1/2 hours individual practicing every day, two one hour lessons and one performance masterclass each week. Supervision from teaching assistants, regular staff pianists for all sonata and concerto repertoire.

Evening masterclasses with guest artists, Concerts of the Summer Festival with world-famous performers.

Competition for Piano Performers/Groups of Teachers within the framework of the X Regional Open Festival of Chamber Music “Let us fill our hearts with music!”

«…Childhood and youth is a period in life, when human being’s future is designed it is a time when everyone tries something, opens something new for him/herself experiments and is afraid of nothing” D. A. Medvedev   (from RF President address to Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation)

The Children School of Arts (Petrozavodsk) organized the IV International Scientific & Practical Conference “Development of creative potential of the child’s personality. Pedagogical achievements, opportunities and development perspectives. Children & Youth Theatre”.

The first Republican conference about game technologies in creative development was held in 2001 at the Children School of Arts. Participants of the second conference discussed the issue of use of different methods of Art Pedagogy in 2004. In 2007 the holders of the third conference, t.i. Children School of Arts and Center of Informational technologies (Karelia State Pedagogical University) proposed to participants to discuss a very topical subject – Use of informative & communicative technologies in pedagogical activities to develop children’s creativeness.

...their first International Festival of String Quartets, in Sicily.

Take a look at the flyer >>