From a Grammy-winning quartet to Czech string traditions, Vancouver’s Friends of Chamber Music announces 2024-25 season
Takács Quartet, Han Finckel Setzer Trio, and Pacifica Quartet are among the 10 concerts on the books for FCM’s 77th season
Pacifica Quartet.
FRIENDS OF CHAMBER Music has just announced details for its 2024-25 season, the organization’s 77th.
Things kick off on October 15 with Gropius Quartet, FCM’s first presentation of the German group. “This quartet plays on four instruments, but with one soul,” raved the Klassik-begeistert blog, while the Schwabische Post once wrote “It was marvelous with what incredible intensity the Gropius ensemble makes music. The vehement plumbing of and enjoyment of the passion, is doubtlessly what creates this electric tension, and makes the music so alive.”
Ariel Quartet performs on October 29, the ensemble blending American, Israeli, and German string-playing traditions. Celebrating its 26th anniversary this year, the group serves as the faculty quartet-in-residence at the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music.
On November 10, FCM presents Pražák Quartet, the group known for its playing in the classic Bohemian/Czech string tradition. The quartet was founded in 1972 by students at the Prague Conservatory and has gone on to tour internationally.
Perennial favourite Takács Quartet performs on December 8. Now entering its 50th anniversary season, the London, England-based ensemble has received praise from the likes of The Guardian, which once wrote “Classical music doesn’t get much more life-enhancing than this.”
Schumann Quartet performs on February 11. Brothers Mark (violoncello), Erik (violin), and Ken Schumann (violin) have been playing together since childhood, while violist Veit Hertenstein rounds out the German-based group.
Han Finckel Setzer Trio appears on February 18, the unit’s music steeped in American and Russian musical traditions.
Notos Quartett, which formed in Berlin in 2007, will perform three piano quartets on March 2.
Pavel Haas Quartet takes to the stage on March 16. The Czech group is artist-in-residence at the Dvořák Prague Festival.
The Grammy-winning Pacifica Quartet will perform on April 1. The ensemble has served as quartet-in-residence at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music and leads the Center for Advanced Quartet Studies at the Aspen Music Festival and School.
Finally, FCM presents the New York City-based Isidore Quartet on April 15. Winners of a 2023 Avery Fisher Career Grant, the group won the Banff International String Quartet Competition in 2022.
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