The Goldner String Quartet is an Australian
string quartet formed in 1995 in honour of
Richard Goldner
Richard Goldner (23 June 1908 – 27 September 1991) was a Romanian-born, Viennese-trained Australian violist, pedagogue and inventor. He founded Musica Viva Australia in 1945, which became the world's largest entrepreneurial chamber music organ ...
, the founder of
Musica Viva Australia
Musica Viva was founded in 1945 by Romanian-born violinist Richard Goldner, with the aim of bringing chamber music to Australia. The co-founder was a German-born musicologist, Walter Dullo. At its inception, Musica Viva was a string ensemble per ...
.
The Quartet consists of
Dene Olding and
Dimity Hall (violins),
Irina Morozova (viola; an ex-pupil of Goldner) and
Julian Smiles (cello). These players are familiar to each other as they all are members of the
Australia Ensemble
Australia Ensemble UNSW is an Australian chamber group active since 1980.
The group was founded in 1980 as the University of New South Wales Ensemble after a proposal put to the University of New South Wales by musicologist Roger Covell and cl ...
(a group based at the
University of New South Wales
The University of New South Wales (UNSW), also known as UNSW Sydney, is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the founding members of Group of Eight, a coalition of Australian research-intensiv ...
). In addition, Olding and Morozova are married, as are Hall and Smiles. The Goldners have played throughout Australia and New Zealand, as well in the UK, USA, Korea, Finland, France and Italy, and with artists such as
Boris Berman,
Ian Munro,
Piers Lane
Piers Lane (born 8 January 1958) is an Australian classical pianist. His performance career has taken him to more than 40 countries. His concerto repertoire exceeds 75 works.
Early life
Lane's English father and Australian mother met while au ...
,
Daniel Adni,
Malcolm Bilson
Malcolm Bilson (born October 24, 1935) is an American pianist and musicologist specializing in 18th- and 19th-century music. He is the Frederick J. Whiton Professor of Music in Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. Bilson is one of the foremost playe ...
,
Brett Dean
Brett Dean (born 23 October 1961) is an Australian composer, violist and conductor.
Biography
Brett Dean was born, raised and educated in Brisbane. He started learning violin at the age of eight, and later studied viola with Elizabeth Morgan ...
and
Slava Grigoryan
Slava Grigoryan (born 1976) is an Australian classical guitarist and recording artist. He frequently collaborates and performs with his younger brother, fellow guitarist Leonard Grigoryan, performing as the Grigoryan Brothers.
Early life
He was ...
.
In 1997 the Goldner String Quartet made its debut at the
Wigmore Hall
Wigmore Hall is a concert hall located at 36 Wigmore Street, London. Originally called Bechstein Hall, it specialises in performances of chamber music, early music, vocal music and song recitals. It is widely regarded as one of the world's leadi ...
in London, and has since appeared there regularly, as well as at the Cheltenham, Newbury and Brighton Festivals, and at the ''Saison musicale d'été de Sceaux'' in France. In March 2000, the Quartet performed a major retrospective of 20th century string quartets at the
Adelaide Festival
The Adelaide Festival of Arts, also known as the Adelaide Festival, an arts festival, takes place in the South Australian capital of Adelaide in March each year. Started in 1960, it is a major celebration of the arts and a significant cultural ...
. In October 2001 the Quartet made its American debut with concerts at the
92nd Street Y in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
, and in
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
It has undertaken three extensive tours of
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
, most recently in 2006, and also toured to Korea that year.
The Quartet performed its first complete
Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classic ...
cycle for Musica Viva in 2004, a live recording of which has been released by ABC Classics.
[ It is particularly interested in 20th-century music, and has recorded an album of string quartets by ]Carl Vine
Carl Edward Vine, (born 8 October 1954) is an Australian composer of contemporary classical music.
From 1975 he has worked as a freelance pianist and composer with a variety of theatre and dance companies, and ensembles. Vine's catalogue inclu ...
.[The Age, 7 November 2009, ''Chamber group's encore performance''][
]
Awards and nominations
ARIA Music Awards
The ARIA Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony that recognises excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of Australian music. They commenced in 1987.
!
, -
, 2009
, ''Beethoven: The Complete String Quartets''
, Best Classical Album
The Grammy Award for Best Classical Album was awarded from 1962 to 2011. The award had several minor name changes:
*From 1962 to 1963, 1965 to 1972 and 1974 to 1976 the award was known as Album of the Year – Classical
*In 1964 and 1977 it wa ...
,
, [ARIA Award previous winners. ]
, -
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Goldner String Quartet
Australian string quartets
Musical groups established in 1995