During the summer 2011 three important events took place:

1) Participation in the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition, Australia. Having passed two prequalification rounds (DVD and live audition), RUSQUARTET (the only string quartet from the RF) joined in competition 8 string quartets from all over the world. RUSQUARTET competed in the two rounds but was not chosen for the finals. However, it received the highest praise from the jury and after the competition was invited to perform a recital.

SBS Radio

SBS, a Melbourne radio station interviewed the Quartet twice.

Listen to interview

***********************************************************************

2) A week after the competition, RUSQUARTET visited the String Quartet Academy at McGill University in Montreal, Canada (MISQA). During two weeks the Quartet worked with outstanding musicians: Gerhard Schulz (Alban Berg Quartet), Peter Schuhmayer (Artis Quartet), Keith Robinson (Miami Quartet), Nicholas Kitchen and Yeesun Kim (Borromeo Quartet).

With Gerhard Schulz

The two resulting concert performances received positive press reviews.
Claude Gingras, a hard to please music critic, came to both performances. In his review of 20.8.2011, he wrote, -
“… «RUSQUARTET», whose name speaks for itself, … following the Academy rules played one classical and one contemporary piece. «RUSQUARTET» first assembled 10 years ago, in 2001. Since the average age of the musicians is 20-25 years, we can draw a conclusion that its cast has been changing over the years. The Quartet comprised three young women and a young man (cello). A wonderful cooperation of the four members created a rich sound, where the cello was distinclty heard – one of the best cellos I have heard in quartet performances.
The young Russians chose the 3rd Quartet, Op. 76 by Haydn, otherwise known as “Kaiserquartett” or the “Emperor Quartet”. In it the easily recognized tune of the Austrian Hymn is entwined in the stream of the slow movement. The famous theme of 17 notes flowed from one instrument to the other without interrupting the elegant dialogue. What preceded and what followed gave the listener a true pleasure, despite a certain “thickness” of sound not quite peculiar of Haydn’s music.
But the performance of Prokofiev’s 2nd Quartet attained everybody’s approval: born out of Georgian folklore, this full of rhythm and color music was dynamically performed by the Russian musicians with wild energy and enchanting tembre…”
(The original article is in French)

On 27.8.2011, he wrote, -
“… Among the two performers, RUSQUARTET showed itself as better coordinated. After the break RUSQUARTET for 39 minutes tried to interest the public with the 3rd and the last quartet by Tchaikovsky. The composer goes too far with his slow, “twilight” mood moving to “doloroso”, he fails to touch our hearts, and the end is banal and naive. Nevertheless, the young Russian musicians put their hearts in the performance – the content and the sound – to deliver and defend the music of their country …”
(The original article is in French)

RUSQUARTET had a unique opportunity to work with Martha de Francisco, the sound engineer.

***********************************************************************

3) And finally, the official opening of the 2011/2012 concert season for the RUSQUARTET became the 21st  International Festival “Consonances” in Saint-Nazaire, France.

With Charles Neidich

15 concert performances in 9 days on the same stage and in cooperation with outstanding musicians: Philippe Graffin (violin), Philippe Muller (cello), Charles Neidich (clarinet), Vladimir Mendelssohn (viola), Olly Mustonen (piano, composer), Sylvain Blassel (harp), Tatiana Samuil (violin), Mona Julsrud (soprano).

At last RUSQUARTET added to its program one of the most important piano quintets – Quintet in F minor by Johannes Brahms. The idea came to fruition after the Quartet had received an offer to take part in Brahms.ru Festival, which took place on March 9, 2011, in Pavel Slobodkin Centre concert hall.  After the premier, RUSQUARTET and Sergey Kuznetsov repeated the performance in Troitsk and then by invitation of famous Russian composer, painter and musicologist Grigory Freed in one of the favorite concert locations in Moscow – The Big Hall of the House of Composers.

On the 25^th of February, 2011, RUSQUARTET played its first season ticket concert in the Small Hall of the Moscow Conservatory. The program comprised well known pieces as well as String Quartet No. 2 by Sergei Prokofiev (On Kabardinian Themes), Tchaikovsky’s Quartet No. 3, and a Russian premier of one-part Quartet by the Dutch composer Louis Andriessen «…miserere…».  In 2008 RUSQUARTET had already played this piece at a festival in Vancouver dedicated to the composer’s 70^th birthday. Then the Quartet played all the five string quartets by the composer.