QUARTET BERLIN-TOKYO (Germany, Japan, Israel, Slovenia)
Tsuyoshi Moriya, violin
Dimitrij Pavlov, violin
Gregor Hrabar, viola
Ruiko Matsumoto, cello
The concert is organized by Festival Bled.
Programme:
Gavriil Popov (1904—1972), Quartet Symphony, Op. 61
The exciting Quartet Berlin-Tokyo, whose violist is the Slovenian Gregor Hrabar, will offer us an enchanting evening, presenting the recently discovered quartet by the Russian composer Gavriil Popov.
The name was suggested to the ensemble by the renowned Japanese composer Toshio Hosokawa who has described their performance as sincere, stating “their enthusiasm and love for music leave a strong impression.” A microcosm of multiculturalism themselves, the ensemble has held onto the name, seeing it as a symbol of their striving for a synthesis of the East and the West.
The group was founded in 2011 and quickly celebrated their first big success at the International Music Competition of the ARD in Munich 2012, receiving the Jeunesses Musicales Germany prize. That was followed by first prize and an Audience Award at the Orlando International String Quartet Competition in 2014. Their other achievements include the second-and-audience prize at the International Salieri Zinetti Competition in Verona, second prize of the Young Concert Artists Audition New York, third prize at the Franz Schubert competition in Graz, second prize and Best Interpretation at the Carl Nielsen International Chamber Music Competition in Copenhagen, third prize at the International Joseph Joachim Chamber Music Competition’ and a special Irène Steels-Wilsing Prix at the 8th Quatuors à Bordeaux string quartet competition in France. The latter foundation also awarded the ensemble with a scholarship. The ensemble has received musical inspiration and guidance from Oliver Wille, David Alberman, András Keller, Gerhard Schulz, Hartmut Rohde, Johannes Meissl, Jean-Guihen Queyras, Heime Müller, Eberhard Feltz, the Artemis Quartet and the Arditti Quartet.
Since 2014 the group has been the residential quartet at the Rokkatei Concert Hall in Sapporo, Japan. During the residency, they have produced recordings of all Béla Bartók quartets and the complete op. 76 by Joseph Haydn. In 2021, they founded their own music label, QBT Collection.
Tsuyoshi Moriya received his first violin lessons at the age of two and a half and has studied with Yoji Koyama, Yoko Tabuchi, Kumi Sugiyama, Takaya Urakawa, Gerard Poulet, Stephan Picard, and chamber music by Kiyoshi Okayama, Nobuko Yamazaki, Oliver Wille, graduating with honours from the University of Music and Fine Arts in Tokyo and the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin simultaneously. He completed his master’s degree at the Hannover University of Music, Drama and Media. He won the 2nd prize at the Marschner International Competition in Freiburg in 2002 and the Bach Prize at the International Louis Spohr Competition in Freiburg in 2003. Before founding the Quartet Berlin-Tokyo, Moriya gave successful solo concerts and performed with orchestras, such as the Tokyo New City Orchestra, Sendai Philharmonic, Kyoto Philharmonic and Neues Sinfonieorchester Berlin, as a soloist and as guest concertmaster in Japan and Europe.
Dimitri Pavlov, born in Irkutsk, Russia, immigrated to Israel with his family in 1992. Having started studying the violin at age of 6 in Saint Petersburg, he graduated at the Dunia Veizman Conservatory in Haifa and continued his studies with Hagai Shaham. He was a member of the Young Musicians Group of the Jerusalem Music Center, as well as the violinist of the representative Gertler-Quartet of the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music in Tel-Aviv, where he graduated under Irena Svetlova. He also studied with Uwe Martin Haiberg and Artemis Quartet (Berlin University of the Arts), Oliver Wille (Hannover), Eberhard Feltz (Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler, Berlin), Miriam Fried, Ilan Gronich, Vadim Gluzman, Shlomo Mintz and Zakhar Bron. As a soloist, he has appeared with the Concerto-Orchestra Jerusalem and the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music Orchestra. He was also invited to play in the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra led by maestro Daniel Barenboim, and the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra. He has been awarded scholarships from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation.
Career opportunities soon took Slovenian violist Gregor Hrabar across the border, as he studied both at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana and KLK in Austria, earning the France Prešeren Foundation Prize at the former. He took up viola as his second instrument, all the while learning jazz violin and delving intensely into chamber and orchestra music. His passion for ensemble playing has taken him to Berlin, where he finished his Chamber Music Masters studies at Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler. Since 2018, he has been the violist in the Quartet Berlin-Tokyo. His musical career has earned him many international prizes and concerts all around Europe, Asia, USA and Africa, as well as CD, television and radio recordings. He won a scholarship from the Yehudi Menuhin Live Music Now Association. He is also a devoted teacher, earning himself the 2nd certificate of the Colourstrings method, his preferred method for beginners. Currently he is the guest professor at the Mayumi Music Education Academy in Okinawa.
Ruiko Matsumoto, born in Sapporo, Japan, received her first cello lessons with Hakuro Mori and Yoshiro Uehara at the age of ten. She studied at the Toho Gakuen School of Music and the Toho Gakuen College of Music in Tokyo, continuing her studies with David Geringas and Claudio Bohórquez at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin, as well as chamber music studies with Eberhard Feltz, the Artemis Quartet (Berlin University of the Arts), and Oliver Wille at the Hannover University of Music, Drama and Media. She graduated both her diploma and her master’s studies with honours. She is a recipient of numerous prizes and awards at competitions, such as the VIVA Hall Cello Competition, the Sapporo Cello Competition, the Classical Music Competition Japan and the JILA Music Competition. She has participated at various music festivals and master classes, e.g. Aspen Music Festival, Ostsee Musikforum and Accademia Musicale Chigiana. She has given numerous chamber music concerts at the Philharmonic Berlin, Konzerthaus Berlin and Suntory Hall Tokyo, as well as various concerts as a soloist with orchestras in Japan and Europe. She received scholarships from the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs and the Yehudi Menuhin Live Music Now Berlin Association.
Tickets are available on Festival Bled webpage.
