» Cecilia String Quartet Concert - 2011-12 Desjardins Concert
Members of Quartet:
Min-Jeong Koh | Sarah Nematallah | Caitlin Boyle | Rachel Desoer
The Cecilia String Quartet (CSQ) is one of Canada's most exciting young ensembles today. Winner of the prestigious Banff competition in 2010, competing with nine of the world’s finest emerging string quartets, 2nd Prizewinners at the 2008 Osaka International Chamber Music Competition and prizewinners at the Concours international de Quatuor à cordes de Bordeaux 2010, they are currently the Resident String Quartet at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, Canada. In 2009, the CSQ was simultaneously in residence at the JMC House and at McGill University's Schulich School of Music, where the members each received their graduate diplomas under the guidance of André Roy.
The CSQ has performed in cities across North America and in Europe. They also toured Ontario, Québec and British Columbia with Jeunesses Musicales du Canada on their Desjardins Concert Series. Highly interested in musical exploration and innovation, the CSQ embarked on the large scale project 'BLiM' (Breathing Life into Music), a month long residency in France generously supported by ProQuartet and the Centres Culturels de Rencontre Association in France and Europe (ACCR). The project culminated in the performance of two quartets by Théodore Dubois that were lost for the past century, as well as a new piece written for them by American composer Liam Wade. They kicked off 2010 with a new large-scale project at the Banff Center for the Arts, involving collaborations with Common Sense Composers Collective and the Afiara String Quartet, and culminating in the premiere of four brand new quartets written for them.
Members of the CSQ have attended the University of Toronto, the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, the Juilliard School of Music in New York, the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and the Hochschule fur Musik und Theatre Munchen in Munich, Germany. Min-Jeong Koh currently plays on the ca. 1767 Joannes Baptista Guadagnini violin on loan from the Canada Council for the Arts and would like to thank the anonymous donor and the Canada Council for the Arts for their generous support.
www.ceciliastringquartet.com