The Penderecki String Quartet (www.ps4.ca) has been the backbone of our programme for the past eight years offering their expertise as performers and educators.  They are approaching the third decade of an extraordinary career, and have become one of the most celebrated chamber ensembles of their generation. The Quartet's performing schedule takes them annually to the great concert stages of North and South America, Europe and the Far East.

The PSQ's recent schedule has included concerts in New York (Miller Theatre), Amsterdam (Concertgebouw), St. Petersburg (State Music Museum), Paris (University 8), New Haven (Yale University), Los Angeles (Bing Theatre), Atlanta (State University), Bloomington (Indiana University), Wieczory Arsenale Festival in Poland, Is Arti Festival in Lithuania, Rive-Gauche Concerti in Italy, the Festival Internacional de Musica in Venezuela, Casalmaggiore Festival in Italy, Musicarama Festival Hong Kong, and the Shanghai International Arts Festival. The PSQ has performed extensively in Canada, including numerous performances in all the major centres from coast to coast.

The PSQ has collaborated with many eminent ensembles such as The Borodin Trio, The Fine Arts Quartet, Dancetheatre David Earle as well as with artists such as Vladimir Feltsman, James Campbell, Lev Natochenny, Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, Jeremy Menuhin, Janina Fialkowska, and jazz saxophonist Jane Bunnett.

The PSQ was founded in Poland in 1986 at the urging of the pre-eminent Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki. The fruit of their association includes the authoritative interpretation of Penderecki's complete works for String Quartet on CD (United Records, England). To this day the Quartet is a devoted champion of the music of our time, and has performed a wide range of repertoire from Bach to Brahms, Bartok to Ligeti, Frank Zappa to John Oswald, as well as premiering over 100 new works from numerous composers including Brian Cherney, Linda C. Smith, Randolph Peters, Harry Freedman, Glenn Buhr, Alice Ho, Peter Hatch, Omar Daniel and Gilles Tremblay with assistance from the Canada Council, the Laidlaw Foundation, the CBC, the Ontario Arts Council, and the Hong Kong Arts Development Council.

The PSQ's large discography includes over 20 recordings including the chamber music repertoire of Johannes Brahms on both the Marquis and Eclectra labels, as well as a new release of the six Bela Bartok quartets under the auspices of the Napa Valley Chamber Music Society. The Quartet has also recorded discs for CBC, CMC, EMI, United, and Artifact labels among others.

The PSQ devotes much of its time to Quartetfest, an intensive Spring-term seminar held at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario where invited guest faculty have included the Tokyo Quartet, the Ying Quartet, and the Colorado Quartet. The PSQ's involvement in education is a year-round commitment as they enter their 14th year as Quartet-in-Residence at Wilfrid Laurier University. Under the Quartet's direction, the string program has become one of the most successful programs in Canada, attracting an international body of students.
For more information on the PSQ, please visit www.ps4.ca.

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The all-Canadian Afiara String Quartet is the Morrison Fellowship Quartet-in-Residence at the International Center for the Arts, San Francisco State University, where they serve as teaching assistants to their mentors, the world-renowned Alexander String Quartet. Praised by the San Francisco Classical Voice as "a terrifically unified, versatile, idiomatic, and moving ensemble", they are Artists-in-Residence at Lake Tahoe Music Festival's Education and Outreach Program and Affiliates of San Francisco Friends of Chamber Music. The Afiara Quartet has been invited to compete as one of the ten semi-finalists in the 9th Banff International String Quartet Competition and was named a Finalist in the 2007 Concert Artists Guild International Competition. Also, they have performed at Carnegie Hall in the "Kronos: Signature Works" series, taught as Faculty Ensemble in Residence at Chamber Music of the Rockies, and, in their New York debut, were presented by Chamber Music America in a Kronos-curated concert. They have been heard on KALW, CBC Radio 2, and were featured in the "Road to Banff" documentary.

This season, the quartet enjoys re-engagements with San Francisco Performances' Salon Series, Sierra Chamber Society, and Seventh Avenue Performances, and will also appear with Noe Valley Chamber Music Series, the MasterGuild series in Oakland, and in a three-concert tour of Ontario, Canada.  In January and April, Montalvo Center for the Arts will present the Afiara Quartet in two all-Shostakovich concerts and, in March, the quartet continues its work with concerts and outreach presentations at the Lake Tahoe Music Festival.  After their return from the Osaka Chamber Music Competition in Japan, they will continue their relationship of teaching and performing as Emerging Ensemble of San Francisco's Yehudi Menuhin Seminar in June.

The Afiaras pursue new music with thirst. Under the auspices of the American Composers Forum and the Jerome Foundation, they will give the world premiere of Huck Hodge's String Quartet No. 1 in New York next February. To date, the quartet has given the world premiere of Brett Abigana’s Une Grande Messe in San Francisco, the East Coast premiere of Peteris Vasks’ Fourth String Quartet in New York, and Jason Bush's string quartet "Visions", which is dedicated to and written for the Afiara String Quartet, received its world premiere in San Francisco. Finally, in collaboration with timpanist Louis Siu, they commissioned and premiered new chamber music repertoire for string quartet and the tenor timpani, resulting in two works by Alain Chiu and Winton White.

The Afiara String Quartet takes its name from the Spanish fiar, meaning "to trust". It has been said that chamber music is a conversation between friends. Within the support of friendship, the Afiaras found that trusting each other, in rehearsal and on stage, was vital to the depth and joy of their music-making. The Afiara Quartet is committed to education, sharing their music with those less fortunate, and connecting to audiences on different levels. They combine urban elements to their outreach and make unlikely connections in their presentations by coupling together Haydn and hip-hop, often to the glee of students and enthusiastic amusement of adults. They collaborate and perform with the rap group Blunt Delphix. Along with their studies with the Alexander String Quartet, the Afiaras have worked with the Kronos Quartet, Bonnie Hampton, and Robert Mann, and at the San Francisco Conservatory with Paul Hersh, Mark Sokol, and Ian Swensen.

For more information on The Afiara String Quartet, please visit www.afiara.com.

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American pianist Peter Longworth has a notable career as a chamber music collaborator, solo recitalist and concerto performer.  He has been guest artist with the Chicago, Kitchener-Waterloo and Mississauga Symphonies.  Alongside his work with the Duke Trio, Peter performs with leading instrumentalists and singers.  He has been a prizewinner in the Busoni International Competition in Italy.  His teachers have included Arthur Tollefsen, Eckart Sellheim, Marek Jablonski and Leon Fleisher.  Peter is currently on the faculty of the Glenn Gould School in Toronto.

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Michael has been part of the SOCMI fabric for many years as a regular faculty member and performer.  More recently, in 2005, his piano trio, the Turini Schulte Bloemendal Trio, premiered our 10th composer-in-residence, Abigail Richardson’s work, ‘The Pull’, which was SOCMI’s very first commission. Those of you who attended in 2005 remember CBC’s Radio involvement and the incorporation of a live visual representation of the work by artist Lila Lewis Irving (please access our website at www.socmi.org for more information and take a look at the noteworthy artwork that was created during the performance).

This season, Michael and Abigail will collaborate at Socmi again as he conducts her new chamber orchestra work.  Michael began serious violin studies in Luebeck, Germany.  His background includes years of orchestral activity including nine concert masterships as well as much chamber music.  In Michael's current period of musical activity, he most often performs as recitalist, sometimes concerto soloist, and keeps a busy teaching schedule with violin, viola, and year around chamber music coaching.  Michael champions his wife Abigail's music, much of which he has played or conducted for national radio broadcast.  The violin concerto "Upstream" and the trio "The Pull", written for Michael and for his trio, the Turini,Schulte,Bloemendal Trio, respectively, can be heard at the Canada Council site: http://www.terminus1525.ca/studio/view/3846  Critic Hugh Fraser commented on the "the smooth virtuosity of this elegantly accomplished violinist..."

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Abigail Richardson was born in Oxford, England and moved to Canada as a child.  Ironically, she was diagnosed completely and incurably deaf at the age of five.  Upon moving to Canada, her hearing was fully intact within months.  She received her Bachelor of Music from the University of Calgary and her Masters and Doctorate degrees from the University of Toronto.  Her music has been played at the Festival Présences of Paris, Winnipeg New Music Festival, Newfoundland Sound Symposium, Ottawa Chamber Music Festival, Festival of the Sound, etc.  Abigail won the first Karen Kieser Prize for Canadian music and the Canadian Music Centre Prairie Region award.  Most significantly, she was awarded the top prize for composers under 30 at the prestigious International Rostrum of Composers in Paris.  Her music has been broadcast in 35 countries.  She has been commissioned by such groups as the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Victoria Symphony, Radio France, Tapestry New Opera, New Music Concerts (for her husband, violinist Michael Schulte), Theatre Direct, Southern Ontario Chamber Music Institute, Talisker Players, Festival Winds, etc.  Abigail is affiliate composer with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Abigail was composer in residence at SOCMI in 2005 and is thrilled to return this summer with a new piece she is writing just for the students.