“The performances were everything we have come to expect from this superb ensemble: technically resourceful, musically insightful, cohesive, full of character and always interesting.”

— The New York Times

Universally acclaimed as one of the best string quartets in the world, the Emerson Quartet’s unparalleled list of achievements over three decades includes more than thirty acclaimed recordings and nine Grammy Awards. Beloved by audiences in Montreal and around the world, the Quartet returns to the Montreal Chamber Music Festival for the third and final concert in its “Celebrity Series,” in celebration of the Festival’s 20th Anniversary, on Saturday, May 2 at 8:00 pm at Bourgie Hall at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. The Emerson’s sumptuous program pairs two of the greatest masterworks of all time: Bach’s “Art of the Fugue,” the summit of his contrapuntal genius, and Beethoven’s seminal late quartet, Op. 132, representing the emergence of the master’s Romantic spirit.

Formed in 1976 and based in New York City, the Emerson was one of the first quartets formed with two violinists – Eugene Drucker and Philip Setzer – alternating in the first chair position. They are joined by violist Lawrence Dutton, and cellist Paul Watkins, who replaced founding cellist David Finckel in 2013, the Quartet’s 37th season. The reconfigured group has been greeted with impressive accolades. “One of the characteristics of the Emerson Quartet is that its players all have the ability and the instruments to produce a sweet and glossy sound — but do so sparingly. Instead, they establish a chromatic scale of timbres that range from dry and tart over clean and zesty all the way to lustrous and singing.”  (The New York Times)

With over 80 quartet performances each season, the Emerson’s recent performances have taken them across South America and the US, as well as dates across Europe and Japan. As an exclusive artist for SONY Classical, the Emerson recently released Journeys, featuring Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir de Florence and Schoenberg’s Verklaerte Nacht. In January of 2015, the Quartet received the Richard J. Bogomolny National Service Award, Chamber Music America’s highest honor, in recognition of its significant and lasting contribution to the chamber music field.

The Emerson String Quartet concert is sponsored by The Alex U. Soyka Foundation.

The 20^th Anniversary of the Montreal Chamber Music Festival continues from June 6 through 21 featuring artists including pianist Marc-André Hamelin, the Dover Quartet, jazz legend Oliver Jones, and superstar soprano Marie-Josée Lord, among many others. Founding Artistic Director Denis Brott’s 2015 programming was strongly influenced by this year’s concurrent 70th anniversaries of liberation: the end of WWII and the Holocaust. “These two earth-shattering moments in time instilled in me the desire to musically express the remarkable power of the human spirit,” comments Brott. “Whether it be the Quartet No. 3 of Victor Ullmann, written in the concentration camps of Nazi Germany, or the New Testament Revelations-inspired Quartet for the End of Time by Olivier Messiaen, we will take a musical voyage which will celebrate the extraordinary resilience and sense of survival in our collective spirit.”

Dedicated to promoting chamber music in all its diverse forms through collaborations with jazz and other artistic disciplines such as dance, theatre, film and visual arts, the Montreal Chamber Music Festival has received three OPUS awards (1999, 2001 and 2009), a Québec Tourism Grand Prize (2007) and the 2014 Event award from Destination Centre-ville Montréal. For more information please see:

www.festivalmontreal.org

The Azrieli Music Project (AMP), established to celebrate, foster and create opportunities for the performance of high quality new orchestral music on a Jewish theme or subject, is delighted to launch two important new prizes: The Azrieli Prize in Jewish Music, an international prize for a recently composed or performed work by a living composer; and The Azrieli Commissioning Competition, for a Canadian composer of any age. Each prize — open to composers of all faiths, backgrounds and affiliations — is for a new work of Jewish orchestral music of minimum 15 minutes duration, and carries a value of 50,000 Canadian dollars. The AMP is delighted to confirm its partnership with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal and Maestro Kent Nagano, who will perform the winning works at The Azrieli Music Project Gala Concert at Maison symphonique in Montreal on October 19, 2016.

Dr. Sharon Azrieli Perez, noted operatic soprano and scholar in Jewish and cantorial music, has spearheaded the creation of the new prize: “Music has always played an important role in the development of cultural identities. Whether through folk traditions, in liturgical settings or in the concert hall, music reflects history and soul. In creating this extraordinary opportunity for composers of Jewish orchestral music, we hope to sustain music’s vital continuity through the long and rich history of Jewish people and culture. The Azrieli Music Project will become the medium for innovation, creation and risk-taking by today’s most inspired orchestral composers.”

The question What is Jewish Music? is at the heart of a constantly evolving cultural dialogue. Taking into account the rich and diverse history of Jewish musical traditions, the AMP defines “Jewish Music” as music that incorporates a Jewish thematic or Jewish musical influence. Jewish themes may include biblical, historical, liturgical, secular or folk elements. Defining Jewish music as both deeply rooted in history and tradition and forward-moving and dynamic, the AMP encourages themes and content drawn from contemporary Jewish life and experience. The AMP challenges orchestral composers of all faiths, backgrounds and affiliations to engage creatively and critically with this question in submitting their work. (For a more detailed description of how the AMP defines Jewish Music, please see: http://www.azrielifoundation.org/music/what-is-jewish-music/)

Joseph Rouleau, C.C., G.O.Q., one of the world’s foremost operatic basses and Honorary President of Jeunesses Musicales Canada, will serve as Chair of The AMP Advisory Council. Mr. Rouleau comments, “It is a tremendous pleasure to help launch this significant new prize, which offers such extraordinary opportunities – for the two composers who will have their work performed by Maestro Nagano and the OSM, and for the public, who will benefit from the creation of two new works of art on the fascinating theme of Jewish music.” Rouleau is joined on the Advisory Council by soprano Dr. Sharon Azrieli Perez, Director on the Board of the Azrieli Foundation, Canadian composer Ana Sokolović, Judge Barbara Seal, C.M., and classical music philanthropist David Sela. The AMP Jury will be announced at a later date.

The Azrieli Prize in Jewish Music is an international prize, awarded to the living composer of a recently composed and/or performed work of orchestral Jewish music, of minimum 15 minutes duration. The work must have been written in the last 10 years (after January 1, 2005), and have never been commercially recorded. Composers may be of any age, experience level, nationality, faith, background or affiliation. Deadline for submissions by open nomination is January 1, 2016.

The Azrieli Commissioning Competition is a Canadian commissioning grant for a work of new orchestral Jewish music between 15 and 25 minutes duration. This prize is limited to Canadian citizens or permanent residents of any age, experience level, faith, background or affiliation. A written proposal of the work to be composed, plus two excerpts of three-minutes each from previously completed works (score and recording) must be submitted by March 15, 2015. The deadline for the completed composition will be July 1, 2016.

Further details, score guidelines, deadlines, and the online and application form, may be found at: www.azrielifoundation.org/music

The Azrieli Foundation is a Canadian philanthropic organization that supports a wide range of initiatives and programs in the fields of education, architecture and design, Jewish community, Holocaust commemoration and education, scientific and medical research, and the arts.