May 28, 2019
For Immediate Release

Waterloo – Wilfrid Laurier University’s Faculty of Music, together with the Penderecki String Quartet and the Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Music Society, will host the 27th annual QuartetFest, an intensive study course and concert series, from June 3 to 16.

“QuartetFest continues to be a much-anticipated event for course participants and concert audiences alike,” said Glen Carruthers, dean of Laurier’s Faculty of Music. “The festival attracts talented young musicians from across Canada and abroad, uniting them with world-renowned performers, much to the delight of chamber music lovers in Kitchener-Waterloo and beyond.”

Guest faculty for this year’s QuartetFest are the Philadelphia-based Dalí String Quartet, cellist Paul Marleyn, who is professor of cello and head of strings at the University of Ottawa, and Spanish pianist Leopoldo Erice, who also teaches at the University of Ottawa.       

The QuartetFest concert line-up is as follows, with all tickets available through Ticketscene.ca:

• 8 p.m. Friday, June 7: Faculty concert with the Penderecki String Quartet and baritone Daniel Lichti at the Maureen Forrester Recital Hall, Wilfrid Laurier University’s Waterloo campus. General admission $40, students $25
• 8 p.m. Saturday, June 8: Dalí String Quartet at Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Music Society, 57 Young St. W., Waterloo. General admission $40, students $25
• 8 p.m. Friday, June 14: Faculty concert with the Penderecki String Quartet, cellist Paul Marleyn and pianist Leopoldo Erice at the Maureen Forrester Recital Hall, Wilfrid Laurier University’s Waterloo campus. General admission $40, students $25
• 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. Sunday, June 16: QuartetFest young artists’ concerts at Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Music Society, 57 Young St. W., Waterloo. General admission $15, students $10

The Penderecki String Quartet (PSQ) has been the Quartet-in-Residence at Laurier for almost three decades and is one of the most celebrated chamber ensembles of its generation. The PSQ is comprised of violinist Jerzy Kaplanek, violinist Jeremy Bell, violist Christine Vlajk and cellist Katie Schlaikjer. Together, they have built the string program at Laurier to be one of the top programs in Canada. The group has premiered over 100 new works from composers in Canada and abroad and won the 2010 JUNO Award for Best Classical Composition of the Year for their disc of Marjan Mozetich’s Lament in the Trampled Garden.

Some of the individuals participating in QuartetFest are Laurier students, while others hail from as far away as Victoria, British Columbia, St. John’s, Newfoundland, and central Mexico.

QuartetFest is sponsored by Melloul Blamey Construction, HIP Developments and Sutera In-ground Waste Containment Systems.

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About the Wilfrid Laurier University Faculty of Music

Laurier’s Faculty of Music is dedicated to fostering artistic and scholarly development of the highest calibre and to providing a creative environment for student success. A national and international leader in higher music education, the faculty offers innovative, sector-leading programs.

This spring, Laurier’s Faculty of Music launched its Making Space for Music campaign to renovate and expand the Waterloo campus music building and to create a dramatic new gateway to Laurier’s Waterloo campus. To find out more, visit give.wlu.ca/music.