The Quatuor Varèse is a string quartet made up of 4 young professional musicians all having graduated from the Lyon’s Conservatoire Supérieur de Musique. They have a common passion for Chamber Music with the same goal: to discover the magnificent repertoire of string quartets and share it with their audience.
The Quatuor Varèse was founded in 2006 and made its debut in the Quartet Class of Zoltan Toth and Reiko Kitahama, both members of the Quatuor Ravel. Since then, they have played regularly in the Varèse Concert Hall (from which the name of their quartet was taken) during the Season of the Lyon’s Conservatoire Supérieur de Musique. The musicians soon became acquainted with the Quatuor Debussy with whom they started a thorough study, through master classes and festivals such as the « Cordes en Ballade » and the « Festival de l'Epau ».
In December 2007, the quartet joined the Quatuor Ysaye's quartet class in the Paris Conservatoire (CRR). In September 2009, they were invited to take part in Miguel Da Silva's master class in the Ravel Academy of St Jean de Luz. Their performance was rewarded by the Rotary-Lyons Prize.
In October 2009, they took part in the Lyon’s Chamber Music International Competition where they have been distinguished by an ADAMI Prize. During that competition, the Palazetto Bru Zane in Venice was impressed by their performance and invited the Quartet to play the music of lesser-known French composers in its universally renowned programme.
The Quatuor Varèse regularly plays in Ciboure and Flaine, as well as for the "Concerts in our Villages" organized by the Quatuor Danel, "Quartiers d'Hiver" in Haute-Savoie, the Paris Modern Art Museum and Lyon’s “Salle Molière”. They had the opportunity to play with the Quatuor Debussy, J-F Neuburger and T. Papavrami. They played for the J. P. Derrien's and Gaëlle Le Gallic's France Musiques radio programmes "Sur tous les Tons" and "Dans la Cour des Grands". Future engagements include concerts for a Radio France music festival for the upcoming summer.
The 2010-2011 Season has taken this young quartet to Berlin, Venice (Palazetto Bru Zane), Québec (Palais Montcalm), Paris (Radio France) and started with a tour in Japan (November 2010). However the quartet remains based in the Rhône Alpes region where it started, particularly by taking part in the « Rhône en Scène » project which is sponsored by the Conseil Général du Rhône.
During this season, the quartet took part in master-classes provided by the National String Quartet Academy in Amsterdam, and studied with Heime Müller, Pr. Eberhard Feltz and Paul Katz during the master-classes provided by the ProQuartet-CEMC association in Paris and Pont-Royal (France).
In April 2011, the quartet was awarded a FNAPEC prize at the FNAPEC-Musiques d’ensembles European chamber music competition.
The Quatuor Varèse will have the great pleasure of taking part in the Premio Borciani 9th edition in June 2011.
« Le quatuor Varèse a tout simplement ébloui le public lors du concert anniversaire de la Société de Musique
de chambre de Lyon du mois dernier. »
Lyon Capitale, Audrey Hadorn, 04/2009
" The Quatuor Varèse simply enchanted their audience during the Chamber Music Society Anniversary
Concert last Month"
« Le Quatuor de Ravel déchaîne l’enthousiasme. Les quatre musiciens rivalisent de subtilité et, avec un goût
parfait, rendent magnifiquement ce kaléidoscope ravélien, oscillant entre tendresse et précision, fougue et
narration. On est séduit par le discours naturel, évident, par la pureté et la clarté du son. »
ResMusica.com, Ch. Laurandin, 11/2009
"Ravel's Quartet arouses enthusiasm. Each musician the one more than the other attains subtlety and, in
perfect harmony, they convey magnificently Ravel's kaleidoscopic composition, oscillating between
tenderness and precision, passion and narration. One is charmed by the clear and natural discourse, by the
purity and limpidity of the sound."
