Rimsky-Korsakov Quartet from St. Petersburg on Mercer Island!

Russian Chamber Music Foundation of Seattle presents the Rimsky-Korsakov Quartet, coming straight from St. Petersburg to share both their depth of knowledge and the spirit of Russian chamber music with American audiences. Don’t miss the only appearance of the Rimsky-Korsakov Quartet in this area, and it is on Mercer Island!

Rimsky-Korsakov Quartet

Friday, September 23 at 7:30 p.m.
Mercer Island Presbyterian Church
3605 84th Ave. SE ,
Mercer Island, WA 98040

Adult ticket suggested donation $20, Senior and Student ticket suggested donation $15

For ticket information call (425) 941-2297

Program

The program will include
the Tchaikovsky Quartet No.2, op.22 and
the famous Shostakovich Piano Quintet in G Minor, op.57.
The musicians Michael Bondarev (violin), Ekaterina Belisova (violin),
Alexei Popov (viola), and Anton Andreev (cello)
will be joined by Artistic Director and pianist Natalya Ageyeva.

Thank you to the Mercer Island Presbyterian Church concert series for this great collaboration.

Rimsky Korsakov String Quartet was founded in 1939. Today the Quartet is comprised of Mikhail Bondarev (violin), Ekaterina Belisova (violin), Alexei Popov (viola), and Anton Andreev (cello), all graduates of the St. Petersburg Conservatory. The Quartet’s common lineage allows them to achieve organic and convincing interpretations of the great classics, promoting the performing traditions of Russian Music.

The Quartet’s repertoire includes, in addition to the masterpieces of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, rarely performed works by Glinka, Alabiev, Rimsky-Korsakov, Gretchaninov, Miaskovsky and Mossolov. The core of the repertoire includes works by Borodin, Tchaikovsky, Glazunov, Taneyev and Stravinsky. The Quartet also performs contemporary works: they recently premiered Henze’s Piano Quintet at the Philharmonie, Berlin.

Thanks to the Quartet’s active participation, many premiere performances of the St. Petersburg young composers became possible. The quartet is actively engaged in concert activity, touring both in Russia and abroad. Since 1989, the Quartet has appeared in Germany, Italy, France, Great Britain, Switzerland, Sweden, Finland, Czech Republic, Poland, on Malta and other countries.

The Quartet also takes part in numerous music festivals. In Saint Petersburg: “The Music Spring” (Small Philharmonic Hall), “From Vanguard to the Present Days” (Small Philharmonic Hall), ” Ways of Sound” (The House of composers), “Five evenings” (Small Philharmonic hall). In Germany: “Wurzer Sommerkonzerte” and “Wachenheimer Serenade”. In Great Britain: “Oundle music festival”. In Italy: “Festival internazionale della Chitarra”(Syracuse), “Festival internazionale della Chitarra Nicolo Paganini” (Parma), “Palazzo del Priggione” (Venice). In Finland: “Festival of Chamber Music” (Imatra). In Yugoslavia: “Nomus”. In Poland: “Festival of Organ and Chamber Music” (Kamen Pomorsky).

Rimsky-Korsakov Quartet regularly performs at the concert halls of St. Petersburg Academic Capella and the Small Philharmonic Concert hall named after Glinka. They have also performed in the Shostakovich Large Philharmonic Concert Hall in St. Petersburg, in the concert halls of “RAI” and “Oratorio Gonfallone”, auditorium “Seraphicum”, “Ghione” theatre in Rome, R.Pinacoteca Bologna, in Conservatory of Palermo, in the concert halls of “UNESCO” and “St. Chapelle” in Paris, in the Basel Theater, in “Schauspielhaus” and “Kammermusiksaal der Philarmonie” in Berlin, in the philharmonic of Bonn, Germany. The Quartet regularly performs with outstanding foreign musicians and has recorded a compact CD issued by German, US, French and Russian sound recording companies.

The Musicians

Mikhail Bondarev finished special music school at Leningrad State Conservatory, class of violin. His teachers were Lev Rankov and Boris Gutnikov. In 1983 he graduated from St. Petersburg Conservatory, violin class of Professor Elena Komarova. Quartet performance training was obtained at the Conservatory, under the supervision of Professor Vladimir Ovcharek. Mikhail Bondarev has played in Rimsky-Korsakov Quartet since 1981.

Ekaterina Belisova born is Leningrad (St. Petersburg). Since the age of seven, she has learned violin playing under the supervision of L.A. Ivaschenko. In 1981, Ekaterina Belisova successfully finished the special music school and enrolled at the Leningrad State Conservatory. There, she studied violin playing under Professor E. Komarova. Ekaterina Belisova obtained Chamber music training at the class of professor T.L. Fidler, while quartet performance training was obtained at the Conservatory under the supervision of professor Vladimir Ovcharek. In 1984, while a 3rd year student of Conservatory, Belisova joined Rimsky-Korsakov quartet where she has continued playing until the present. Ekaterina also plays in various chamber ensembles, piano trios, and piano quartets. At some performances of Rimsky-Korsakov Quartet, Ekaterina plays as first violin.

Alexei Popov was born in 1961. Alexei studied in the Leningrad musical college named after Rimsky-Korsakov in the viola class under G.M. Hoserova, then at the Leningrad State Conservatory in the class of viola under Professor Kramarov and Stopichev, quartet perfamance under professor Ovcharek, and Chamber music ensemble under Professor Fidler. At his last year at the Conservatory in 1985, Popov was invited to play at the Rimsky-Korsakov Quartet, where he continues playing today. The audience and the press often note the soft and expressive tone of his viola “Alexei Popov playing is full with spirituous feelings, as if flying over the world” – wrote “Der Tagesspiegel”, May 11, 1995 after the quartet performance in Berlin Philharmonic Hall.

Anton Andreev studied at the Saint-Petersburg State Conservatory under professor A.P. Nikitin. A. Andreev is a winner of the St. Petersburg cellist competition (St. Petersburg, 1993), a winner of all-Russia competition (Ryazan, 2000), a diploma winner of the international J. J. F. Dotzauer Competition for Young Cellists (Drezden, 2001) , diploma winner of the Mravisky international competition (St. Petersburg, 2003), a winner of the Shostakovich competition (St. Petersburg, 2006), a participant of Ju. Berg master class (Salzburg, 2007, 2008), and has also participated in the following festivals: Schlezwig-Golschtein; Meklenburg-Vorpommer, Salzburg Festspiele.