In Tuesday’s (5/20) Toronto Star (Canada), Trish Crawford writes that cellist Adrian Fung, founder of the Afiara String Quartet, “would like to have lunch with Ludwig van Beethoven and ask him what his intentions were in some of his compositions.” For Christos Hatzis’ String Quartet No. 3—commissioned for Afiara and due to be performed at the Royal Conservatory’s 21C Music Festival in Toronto—Hatzis is “very much alive and able to answer any questions from the musicians who will premiere his piece…. This festival from May 21 to 25 is … the Royal Conservatory’s first new-music festival, but there are plans to make it an annual affair; the Toronto Symphony Orchestra has had a similar festival for a decade. Esprit Orchestra has been playing music by current composers for 33 years. Its conductor and artistic director, Alex Pauk, closes the festival with Mysterien. Pauk’s wife, composer Alexina Louie, opens it with her Imaginary Opera.” The festival will also include works by emerging Canadian composers Christopher Mayo and Zosha Di Castri. The Afiara String Quartet’s Fung was “thrilled that the busy Hatzis, who had a long waiting list of commissions, agreed to produce an original work for them.”
Posted May 21, 2014
