Morency Quartet/Quatuor Morency

Morency Quartet/Quatuor Morency

Morency Quartet/Quatuor Morency. String quartet created in Montreal in 1979. Its founding members were Denise Lupien (first violin), Marcelle Mallette (second violin), succeeded in 1987 by Olga Ranzenhofer, Francine Lupien-Bang (viola) and Thérèse Motard (cello), succeeded in 1986 by Christopher Best. The ensemble, which quickly earned an excellent reputation, has performed in Paris and across Canada, notably at the Festival d'été international de Québec, theFestival international de Lanaudière, in the Maisons de la culture in Montreal, at the Peterborough Arts Festival, at the Music Gallery in Toronto, and on CBC radio.

The quartet is responsible for several Canadian premieres, including R. Murray Schafer's Quartet No. 3 for the SMCQ, Heinz Holliger's Quartet for the Événements du neuf, and Francis Miroglio's Projections during the Miro exhibition at the Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal. It has given as well (December 1988) the premiere performance in Quebec of Morton Feldman's Quartet No. 2, a work lasting 4 hours and 23 minutes. With the Modern Jazz Quartet, it took part in the FIJM 1990. Guest string quartet at McGill University (1988-90), it became quartet-in-residence at West Brome Beaux-Arts in1989. In 1990 it launched a three-concert series at the Canadian Centre for Architecture, with programs focussing on a theme or a guest soloist, one of them the guitarist Alvaro Pierri. With Ann Robert as the second violin, the ensemble has recorded Rodolphe Mathieu's String Quartet and, with mezzo-soprano Gabrielle Lavigne, Deux Poèmes by the same composer (4-ACM 32, released in 1988).