Quatuor Agate

QUATUOR AGATE

Adrien Jurkovic violin Thomas Descamps violin Raphaël Pagnon viola Simon Iachemet cello 

Program:

- Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) Streichquartett op. 20 Nr.2 in C-Dur (1772)

- Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) Streichquartett Nr. 3 in B-Dur op. 67 (1876)

In 2021 the Quatuor Agate were prize-winners at the Young Classical Artists Trust International Auditions. Formed in 2016, the Quatuor Agate studied at the Hochschule für Musik ‘Hanns Eisler’ in Berlin with Eberhard Feltz, and in Paris under the guidance of Mathieu Herzog (former violist in the Quatuor Ébène), and Luc-Marie Aguera (Quatuor Ysaÿe) at the Conservatoire de Paris.   They now study with the Quatuor Ébène at the Hochschule für Musik in Munich. Engagements during 2021/22 include their debut at Wigmore Hall and recitals at the Verbier Festival, TauberPhilharmonie Weikersheim, TivoliVredenburg Utrecht (Netherlands), Mecklenburg- Vorpommern’s Rugen Island Quartet Festival, Festival de Radio France, Lammermuir Festival (Scotland), Festival “Vibre”, Quatuors à Bordeaux, Nuit du Quatuor (Philharmonie de Paris), Konzertverein Schwerin and the Brucknerhaus Linz (Austria).   The Quartet is supported by the Günther-Caspar Stiftung in Switzerland. The Quartet has given recitals at major venues and festivals across Europe including the Hamburg International Chamber Music Festival, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Les Rencontres Musicales d’Evian, Konzertverein Schwerin and the Cini Foundation in Venice.   They have collaborated with Frank Braley, Mathieu Herzog, Gabriel Le Magadure, Pierre Fouchenneret, Florent Héau, Enrico Pace, Marc Danel, the Modigliani and Jerusalem Quartets, among many others. The Quartet is currently artist in residence at the Fondation Singer Polignac, and resident at ProQuartet in Paris. They are Associate Artist at the Festival la Brėche in Savoie and been invited to take part in the Dimore del Quartetto project in Italy. In 2016 the Quartet founded the CorsiClassic Festival; its mission is to promote chamber music in areas of Corsica where classical music is rarely accessible.   The Quartet were prize-winners at the Verbier Festival Academy in 2019 and the Steels-Wilsing Foundation Competition at the Heidelberger Frühling Festival in 2020.   They have taken part in the Montreal International Quartet Academy, the Aix-en-Provence Festival Academy and ‘Musique à Flaine’ in France, working with members of the Alban Berg, Ysaÿe, Talich and Vogler Quartets, Sir András Schiff, Tabea Zimmerman and Christoph Poppen. All four members of the Agate are from the South of France and met while they were studying individually in Paris. It was their love for Berlin, and it’s rich and dynamic culture that brought them together as a Quartet, and it was there that the idea of founding a festival in Corsica was born. Adrien Jurkovic plays on a violin attributed to Giuseppe Giovanni Guarneri generously loaned by Dr Peter Hauber.   Thomas Descamps plays on a Matteo Goffriller violin generously loaned by the Fondation Boubo- Music.   Raphaël Pagnon plays on a Ferdinando Alberti viola generously loaned by the Fondation Boubo- Music. Simon Iachemet plays on a Giacinto Santagiuliana cello generously loaned by the Fondation Boubo-Music.