Biography
Canada’s Quatuor Molinari, also known as the Molinari Quartet, stands among the country’s rare ensembles devoted primarily to twentieth- and twenty-first-century repertoire. The group has placed special emphasis on contemporary Canadian composition, regularly commissioning scores and presenting the complete cycle of string quartets by R. Murray Schafer in both live performance and on disc.
The ensemble was established in Montreal in 1997 by violinist Olga Ranzenhofer, who earned her degree from the University of Cincinnati after working with pedagogue Dorothy DeLay. Its remaining members—second violinist Antoine Bareil, violist Frédéric Lambert, and cellist Pierre-Alain Bouvrette—each completed recent studies at Canadian conservatories and have held positions with leading national orchestras. Contemporary music formed the quartet’s core focus from its earliest days. The musicians quickly entered the recording studio to document Schafer’s first seven quartets for ATMA Classique, the Quebec-based label with which they have maintained an ongoing relationship while also appearing on the CBC’s own imprint. They remain the sole ensemble to keep every one of Schafer’s thirteen quartets in active repertory, three of which—the Eighth, Tenth, and Thirteenth—were composed expressly for them. In addition, the group has commissioned or premiered works by numerous other Canadian creators, among them Otto Joachim, Nicolas Gilbert, and Laurie Radford.
Since its inauguration in 2001, the Molinari Quartet International Competition for Composition has stimulated a substantial body of new pieces, attracting roughly 850 submissions during its initial six-year period. The quartet’s broader programming and recorded catalogue extend across modern quartets from multiple eras and nations, encompassing works by Bartók, Shostakovich, and Sofia Gubaidulina, whose complete quartets they captured for ATMA Classique in 2015. Frequent participants in concert series and festivals throughout North America and Europe, the musicians have appeared at Radio France’s Présences in Paris, the Le détour de Babel festival in Grenoble, and the Toronto Summer Festival. They undertook a tour of China in 2013 and subsequent visits to Poland and Armenia in 2016. In 2019 the quartet released an album devoted to chamber music by John Zorn.
The ensemble was established in Montreal in 1997 by violinist Olga Ranzenhofer, who earned her degree from the University of Cincinnati after working with pedagogue Dorothy DeLay. Its remaining members—second violinist Antoine Bareil, violist Frédéric Lambert, and cellist Pierre-Alain Bouvrette—each completed recent studies at Canadian conservatories and have held positions with leading national orchestras. Contemporary music formed the quartet’s core focus from its earliest days. The musicians quickly entered the recording studio to document Schafer’s first seven quartets for ATMA Classique, the Quebec-based label with which they have maintained an ongoing relationship while also appearing on the CBC’s own imprint. They remain the sole ensemble to keep every one of Schafer’s thirteen quartets in active repertory, three of which—the Eighth, Tenth, and Thirteenth—were composed expressly for them. In addition, the group has commissioned or premiered works by numerous other Canadian creators, among them Otto Joachim, Nicolas Gilbert, and Laurie Radford.
Since its inauguration in 2001, the Molinari Quartet International Competition for Composition has stimulated a substantial body of new pieces, attracting roughly 850 submissions during its initial six-year period. The quartet’s broader programming and recorded catalogue extend across modern quartets from multiple eras and nations, encompassing works by Bartók, Shostakovich, and Sofia Gubaidulina, whose complete quartets they captured for ATMA Classique in 2015. Frequent participants in concert series and festivals throughout North America and Europe, the musicians have appeared at Radio France’s Présences in Paris, the Le détour de Babel festival in Grenoble, and the Toronto Summer Festival. They undertook a tour of China in 2013 and subsequent visits to Poland and Armenia in 2016. In 2019 the quartet released an album devoted to chamber music by John Zorn.