Quadra

The Quadra piano quartet played its first concert in the autumn of 2011. Having met at the Celebration of Latvian Music in Madona earlier that same year, violinist Arvīds Zvagulis and violist Pēteris Trasuns decided to play together. They imagined establishing a string quartet, then a string trio, but when cellist Kārlis Klotiņš and pianist Rihards Plešanovs joined them, the Quadra piano quartet was born. The musicians’ mission is to popularise forgotten or overlooked masterpieces of chamber music, with a particular focus on Latvian composers.

Over the past decade, Quadra has premiered more than ten piano quartets and string trios. It has played works composed by Jānis Ķepītis, Valentīns Utkins, Tālivaldis Ķeniņš, Pēteris Plakidis, Pēteris Vasks, Imants Zemzaris, Vineta Līce, Agris Engelmanis, Rihards Dubra, Madara Pētersone, Alise Rancāne, Rūdolfs Macats, Armandas Aleksandravičius, Oskars Herliņš, Andris Dzenītis and other composers. In addition to contemporary music (Messiaen, Donatoni), the quartet also performs music by Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann, Fauré, Mahler, etc.

Quadra has proved itself to be a professional, passionate and energetic group of artists. In 2019, its “The King and Quadra” concert was nominated for the Latvian Grand Music Award in the concert of the year category, and in 2017 the ensemble was nominated for the Latvian Television “Kilogram of Culture” Award for its “Utkins, Vasks, Dzenītis” programme.

Quadra approaches everything it does seriously and with a great sense of resolve. This is true even when the task at hand includes a touch of humour and irony, for example, when the quartet and composer Imants Zemzaris prepared “The Latvian Lad of Tango Visits Argentina’s King of Tango”, a programme featuring arrangements of tango melodies by Oskars Stroks, Alfrēds Vinters, Aleksandrs Okolo-Kulaks, Jānis Ivanovs, Marģeris Zariņš, Romualds Kalsons, Ivars Vīgners, Raimonds Pauls and Zemzaris himself.

Quadra has performed throughout Latvia, including at the Latvian New Music Days, deciBels, Arēna, Sansusī and Dominante festivals. It also regularly participates in the Celebration of Latvian Music in Madona.

Rihards Plešanovs studied in Sergey Osokins’ piano class at the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music and has also studied in Hannover and in the Moscow Conservatory’s master’s degree programme. He is currently a master’s student in Osokins’ class at the Latvian Academy of Music. The three string musicians, who also perform together as a trio, are all former or current members of the Sinfonietta Rīga chamber orchestra. Trasuns and Klotiņš have performed with many other orchestras, ensembles and as soloists. Zvagulis is currently the principal second violin in the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra and teaches violin at the Emīls Dārziņš Music School.

LMIC 2020