ORAVA QUARTET
Celebrate the beauty and complexity of the string quartet with ‘ORAVA’, hailed by The Australian as, ‘the future of Australian Chamber Music, the real deal.‘
Orava is one of the most exciting string quartets of its generation and are known for their passionate and engaging performances. In the centre of their program are three string quartets in three very different styles. Beethoven’s op. 18, No. 1 in F major is the first of his ground breaking string quartets and marks a significant moment in the transition from the classical to the Romantic era. Known for his avant-garde style, in his String Quartet No. 3, Krzysztof Penderecki pushes the boundaries of sound and silence, creating a captivating sonic landscape. Featuring another Polish composer, Slawomir Czarnecki, with his Quartet No. 2, op. 33, called ‘Spis’, Orava connect us with some of their own Polish origin. The composer draws inspiration from both traditional and modern music languages.
DATE & TIME
SUNDAY, 23 March
3:00 – 5:00 PM
TICKETS
General $ 35 Concession $30
This concert is a collaboration with Byron Music Society and is their farewell concert after many years of bringing fine music to our region.
“beautifully calculated and co-ordinated, time and motion seemed to defy the laws of physics”
— THE WASHINGTON POST
“warmth of sound, sublime inner voicing and spontaneity”
— THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
“world class”
— THE MERCURY, 2017 (LIVE REVIEW)
The Orava Quartet was founded in 2007 by brothers Daniel Kowalik (violin) and Karol Kowalik (cello), Thomas Chawner (viola), and David Dalseno (violin).
In 2018 Orava Quartet was the first ever Australian string quartet to release an album under the prestigious label Deutsche Grammophon – produced and distributed worldwide by Universal Music Australia. Their first album was received to great acclaim, and in 2023 Orava Quartet have released their second album under the same label.
Orava Quartet has toured throughout Canada, the United States, New Zealand, United Arab Emirates, China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Philippines. As graduate Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Colorado (USA), they had the privilege of working closely with the world-renowned Takács Quartetfrom 2012-2014. During this time the Quartet were selected to be part of the Juilliard String Quartet Seminar in New York City, and toured extensively in the US including at the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. The Quartet also made their debut at the Sydney Opera House for VIVID Festival (in PLANETARIUM: Sufjan Stevans, Bryce Dessner and Nico Muhly) and won two major awards at the 2013 Asia Pacific Chamber Music Competition in Melbourne, including the Musica Viva Australia Tony Berg Award for ‘Most Outstanding Australian Ensemble’.
Since returning to Australia, the Orava Quartet has continued its impressive and rapid rise to national attention, earning a reputation for consistently excellent and thrilling performances. Alongside performances for Camerata – Queensland’s Chamber Orchestra, where they are Quartet-in-Residence; they are also quartet in residence for the Orange Chamber Music Festival, Blackheath Chamber Music Festival and the Bangalow Music Festival. Orava Quartet has performed at many major festivals which include return engagements at the Australian Festival of Chamber Music and Huntington Estate Music Festival; Canberra International Chamber Music Festival; Tasmanian Chamber Music Festival; the BBC Proms Melbourne (for which they were named one of the ‘2016 Arts Highlights of the Year’ by arts luminary, Robyn Archer); Queensland Music Festival, Melbourne Festival (where they were again one of the ‘Top 10 Picks’ of the Festival, in the Herald Sun), the Musica Viva Festival, Brisbane Baroque, among others. Orava Quartet regularly performs and is commisioned new works by contemporary and Australian composers including Elena Kats-Chernin, Paul Dean and more.
In addition to the University of Colorado, and Camerata, the quartet has held residencies at the Banff Arts Centre in Canada, the Bundanon Trust in Australia, and studied with members of the Jerusalem, Emerson, St Lawrence, Schoenberg, Juilliard, Brentano and Goldner String Quartets. Mentored during their undergraduate studies at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music by Uzi Wiesel, Janet Davies and Ole Böhn, the quartet regularly collaborate with musicians such as harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani, trumpet soloist Paul Merkel, pianists Piers Lane, Simon Tedeschi, Olga Kern; singers Katie Noonan, Wolfgang Holzmair, Teddy Tahu Rhodes, and guitarists Slava Grigoryan and Karin Schaupp.