Quartet Fest West Chamber Music Festival Open Masterclasses and Concerts taking ...

Tue. July 1st University of Victoria & St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church Victoria BC By Donation
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Quartet Fest West Chamber Music Festival Open Masterclasses and Concerts taking place June 23-July 5, 2025

Quartet Fest West is one of the finest chamber music programs in North America
Event can be attended in person In-Person Event
Music Classical / Baroque / Orchestral
Tue. July 1st + Add to Calendar University of Victoria & St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church (All Ages)
3:15pm - 5:15pm  Doors at: 3:00pm By Donation

Artists

Lafayette String Quartet
Chamber Music from Victoria BC
Unknown
Penderecki String Quartet
Gaia Quartet
Jeremy Potts
Pamela Highbaugh Aloni
Classical from Victoria BC
Available for Shows/Gigs
Yariv Aloni

Presented by:

University of Victoria, School of Music (Room A169)
Lafayette String Quartet

Other Dates / Times

Jun. 30, 2025 3:15pm doors at 3:00 pm
Jul. 1, 2025 7:30pm doors at 7pm
Jul. 2, 2025 3:15pm doors at 3:00pm
Jul. 3, 2025 7:30pm doors at 7pm
Jul. 3, 2025 3:15pm doors at 3:00pm
Jul. 4, 2025 7:30pm doors at 7pm
Jul. 5, 2025 1pm doors at 12:30pm

Event Description

Quartet Fest West, one of the finest chamber music programs in North America, will take place on the campus of the University of Victoria on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada June 23-July 5, 2025.

The 2025 festival features young artist masterclasses and concerts, as well as special guest concerts by the Penderecki String Quartet (Waterloo, ON), the Gaia Quartet (Boston, MA), and members of the Lafayette Quartet (Victoria, BC) performing with UVic alumni and Victoria Symphony violinist, Jeremy Potts.

Student groups bring together participants from Mexico, the United States, Russia and Canada, and many are meeting playing together for the first time. Come observe how the students develop and grow together as musicians over the course of the two weeks of intensive study.

Gaia Quartet, an intentionally all-women ensemble, will workshop and present a program dedicated to music written by living composers (July 5), and the Penderecki String Quartet will perform works by Johannes Brahms, Dinuk Wijeratne, and Schubert’s Cello Quintet in C minor with Pamela Highbaugh Aloni (July 1). This year’s Gala Concert features performances by Penderecki and Gaia quartets, and members of the Lafayette Quartet (joined by violinist Jeremy Potts).
Tickets are available at the door – “Pay What You Can” prices.

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS:
Concerts:
• Tuesday, July 1st 7:30 PM Phillip T. Young Recital Hall (Pay What You Can) Penderecki String Quartet with Guest Pamela Highbaugh Aloni
• Thursday, July 3rd 7:30 PM Phillip T. Young Recital Hall (Pay What You Can) Gala Concert Penderecki String Quartet, Gaia Quartet, Ann Elliott-Goldschmid, Joanna Hood, Pamela Highbaugh Aloni, Jeremy Potts
• Friday, July 4th 7:30 PM Phillip T. Young Recital Hall (By Donation) Participants’ Final Concert
• Saturday, July 5th 1:00 PM St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church (By Donation) Gaia Quartet
Masterclasses open to the public: Phillip T. Young Recital Hall
• Monday, June 30th 3:15-5:15 (Coaches Jerzy Kaplanek and Christine Vlajk)
• Tuesday, July 1st 3:15-5:15 (Coach Ann Elliott-Goldschmid)
• Wednesday, July 2nd 3:15-5:15 (Coaches Jeremy Bell and Katie Schlaikjer)
• Thursday, July 3rd 3:15-5:15 (Coach Yariv Aloni) (only those who cannot attend participants’ concert on 4th should attend, as this is a dress rehearsal)
PROGRAM DETAILS
Penderecki Quartet Program, Tuesday, July 1st
7:30 PM, Phillip T. Young Recital Hall (Pay What You Can)
• Johannes Brahms’ String Quartet in B flat, Op. 67, No. 3; Dinuk Wijeratne’s A Letter From the Afterlife; and Franz Schubert’s String Quartet in G minor, Op. 10 (L.91) with Pamela Highbaugh Aloni.
Gala Program, Thursday, July 3rd

7:30 PM Phillip T. Young Recital Hall (Pay What You Can)

Penderecki String Quartet, Gaia Quartet, Ann Elliott-Goldschmid, Joanna Hood, Pamela Highbaugh Aloni, Jeremy Potts
• Selections of various works (Gaia Quartet); selections from Claude Debussy’s String Quartet in G minor, Op. 10 (L.91) (Penderecki Quartet); Felix Mendelssohn’s String Octet in E-flat major, Op. 20, MWV R 20 (Penderecki Quartet, members of the Lafayette Quartet and UVic alumni and Victoria Symphony violinist, Jeremy Potts).
Participants’ Final Concert, Friday, July 4th
7:30 PM Phillip T. Young Recital Hall (By Donation)
• This concert marks the culmination of two weeks of intensive rehearsal, coachings, and masterclasses. Quartet Fest West participants from Mexico, the United States, Russia, and Canada—many of whom met for the first time at the festival—present works by Mendelssohn, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Grieg and more.
Gaia Quartet Program, Saturday, July 5th
1:00 PM St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church (By Donation)
• Carrot Revolution by Gabriella Smith, Negro Folk Songs in Counterpoint by Florence Price, Blueprint by Caroline Shaw, Cuimhne by Christine Hedden, In Time by Hsiu-Ping Patrick Wu and Miami (working title) by Aspen Barker.
ENSEMBLE/PERFORMER BIOGRAPHIES:
About Gaia Quartet
• GAIA QUARTET is an intentionally all-women string quartet dedicated to commissioning and performing works by living composers. Founded in 2022 at the Longy School of Music of Bard College by Aspen Barker, Yi Charice Tang, Simone Cartales, and Rosalyn Taylor, GAIA Quartet was formed out of a shared passion for bringing contemporary music to modern audiences. The name “GAIA” comes from the Greek goddess Gaia, the personification of Mother Earth. She is powerful yet often overlooked, much like the composers GAIA Quartet champions. In 2023, GAIA Quartet launched Sonority Unleashed, a concert series designed to reshape how audiences experience contemporary music, by pairing each program with a different interactive element. These programs have culminated in GAIA Quartet's debut album, In Time, which is scheduled to be released in late 2025. In Time features music exclusively by living composers and is designed to go beyond passive listening. A short literary work will accompany each piece, providing another entry point for listeners to engage with and process the music.
About Penderecki String Quartet
• Celebrating their 38th anniversary, the PENDERECKI STRING QUARTET is based in Waterloo, Ontario where they have been Quartet-in-Residence at Wilfrid Laurier University since 1991. Originating from Poland, Canada, and USA, they bring their varied yet collective experience to create performances that demonstrate their “remarkable range of technical excellence and emotional sweep” (Toronto Globe and Mail). The PSQ’s international performing schedule has included appearances in New York (Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall), Amsterdam (Concertgebouw), Hong Kong (Academy for the Arts), Los Angeles (REDCAT Hall at Disney Center), St. Petersburg (Sheremetev Palace), the Adam Festival in New Zealand, and throughout Europe in Rome, Madrid, Paris, Belgrade, Prague, Krakow, Vilnius, and Zagreb. The PSQ has also toured extensively in Mexico, Australia, Venezuela, Brazil, Colombia, and from coast to coast in Canada. The PSQ’s large discography includes over three dozen recordings including the chamber music repertoire of Beethoven and Brahms as well as the first Canadian release of the six Béla Bartók quartets. Their disc of Marjan Mozetich’s “Lament in the Trampled Garden” won the 2010 JUNO Award for Best Composition, and most recently they were nominated for a 2023 JUNO for their jazz album “Blue” with Diana Panton and Don Thompson. In October 2013, the PSQ worked with Maestro Krzysztof Penderecki on his Third Quartet (2008) and performed it at Symphony Space in New York City on the occasion of his 80th birthday. This followed with the recording of Penderecki’s Third Quartet along with quartets of Norbert Palej on the Marquis label. In 2022, the PSQ was featured in Howard Shore’s soundtrack to David Cronenberg’s film Crimes of the Future. Dedicated educators, the PSQ have been recent guests at Bloomington Indiana University’s String Academy, the Beijing Conservatory, University of Southern California (Los Angeles), and with their partner universities in Osnabrück, Germany and Lyon, France.
About Pamela Highbaugh Aloni
• Praised for her “meltingly beautiful solos” and “depth and insight,” cellist PAMELA HIGHBAUGH ALONI has been an Associate Professor at UVic since 1991 where she teaches cello, chamber music, and string pedagogy. She is a founding member of the award-winning Lafayette String Quartet which performed together for 37 years before taking their final bow in August of 2023. Highlights with the LSQ include a Beethoven cycle, a Shostakovich Cycle, and the commissioning of new quartets by women composers. Pamela, a dedicated teacher and performer, has concertized widely and plays on an 1850 George Craske cello.
About Lafayette String Quartet
• From 1986-2023, the members of the LAFAYETTE STRING QUARTET entertained audiences all over North America and Europe and taught some of Canada’s finest young string players. Their residency at the University of Victoria was rich in local performances and community involvement. Their concerts in Canada and abroad were hailed as “Passionate, riveting, and with flawless ensemble.” Today, Professors Ann Elliott-Goldschmid, Joanna Hood and Pamela Highbaugh Aloni continue to teach, coach and mentor fine young string players from all over the world at UVic’s School of Music and their colleague, Sharon Stanis is living a full life in Montreal, PQ.
About Jeremy Potts
• JEREMY POTTS is a versatile violinist and educator whose performances have spanned concert halls, lively bars, prisons, and beyond. A three-time JUNO nominee, he has recorded award-winning albums across genres including classical, jazz, and video game soundtracks. Jeremy has collaborated with some of today’s most accomplished composers and toured with Music in the American Wild, a septet that premiered commissioned works in U.S. National Parks during the centennial celebration. Dedicated to promoting underrepresented Canadian composers, Jeremy spent five years as a member of the Ton Beau String Quartet, where he actively sought out and programmed their works As an avid orchestral musician, he is a member of the Victoria Symphony violin section and has previously performed with the National Ballet of Canada, Canadian Opera Company, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Vancouver Island Symphony, Galiano String Ensemble, and New York City’s Shattered Glass Ensemble.
About Yariv Aloni
• YARIV ALONI is the music director of the Victoria Chamber Orchestra, the Greater Victoria Youth Orchestra and the Sooke Philharmonic Orchestra. He is also appearing frequently as principal guest conductor with the West Coast Symphony Orchestra in Vancouver. He was the founder and music director of the Galiano Ensemble of Victoria for 18 years. Former violist of both the Penderecki String Quartet and the Aviv Piano Quartet, he has performed in many concert halls around the world, including Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Centre in New York, the Louvre in Paris, Tonhalle in Zurich, and numerous concert halls in Europe, Canada and the United States. He has recorded for the United, Marquise, Tritonus and CBC labels as well as independent CD labels. He performs regularly in numerous chamber music concerts, festivals and recital series.

Venue

University of Victoria & St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church

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Quartet Fest West Chamber Music Festival Open Masterclasses and Concerts taking place June 23-July 5, 2025 - Jun 30th @ University of Victoria & St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church

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