| Praised for their 'extraordinary commitment and maturity' (Montreal Gazette) and 'talent, passion and mastery' (Jacques Robert, JR Multimedia), the Cecilia String Quartet is one of Canada's most exciting emerging ensembles today. Second Prizewinners of the 2008 Osaka International Chamber Music Competition and winners of the 2007 Galaxie Rising Stars Award in Canada, they are currently pursuing Artist Diplomas at the Schulich School of Music at McGill University, under the guidance of Prof. André Roy. Most recently, the quartet has won First Prize and the Melpomene Prize at the Rutenberg Competition.
Since their inception in 2004, the quartet has held residencies at Laurier University, The Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, and at the University of Toronto where the quartet was formed. Their debut performance at the Arts and Letters Club in Toronto was met with high praise, and their first season culminated in the receipt of the Felix Galimir Award for Chamber Music Excellence after only 6 months as a quartet. Subsequently, they participated in the Juilliard String Quartet Seminar in New York, the Stanford Chamber Music Seminar in California, and the Schleswig-Holstein Chamber Music Festival in Germany. One of two quartets invited to attend the 2006 Deer Valley Music Festival's Emerging Quartets and Composers Program in Utah, the CSQ worked extensively with the Muir Quartet and Joan Tower to premiere Belinda Reynolds' "Static Motion", a work commissioned for the CSQ by the festival. In summer 2007, the CSQ were fellows at the Aspen Music Festival and School in the prestigious Advanced String Quartet Studies Program. From 2007-2009, they were recipients of the Joseph Fisch and Joyce Axelrod String Quartet residency at San Diego State University in association with the La Jolla Music Society.
The CSQ has performed across North America on series such as the Barrie Colours of Music Festival, the Toronto Music Garden, the Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Music Society, Chamber Music Hamilton, the Northern Lights Music Festival in Ajijic, Mexico, the Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival, the La Jolla Music Society in California, and three concerts on Music Toronto's Discovery Series. They also recently toured Ontario, Quebec, and British Columbia with Jeunesses Musicales Canada on their Desjardins Concert Series. This past summer the CSQ were Shouse Artists at the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival in Michigan and the Resident String Quartet at the Austin Chamber Music Festival in Texas. Upcoming highlights include two concerts at the Jeunesses Musicales Canada House on their La Musique sur un plateau series and a recording project with XXI records in Montreal.
The Cecilia String Quartet takes its name from St. Cecilia, the patron saint of music. They have worked with members of the Juilliard, Emerson, Tokyo, Takacs, St. Lawrence, Ying, American, Penderecki, and Orford Quartets. Members of the CSQ have attended the University of Toronto, the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory of Music, the HARID Conservatory of Music, the New England Conservatory, the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, and the Hochschule fur Musik und Theatre Munchen in Munich, Germany. Min-Jeong Koh plays on a violin made by Samuel Zygmuntovich, on loan from the Banff Centre and would like to thank them for their generosity and support. |
