AvA Musical Editions

Contact - management@editions-ava.com 

This Quartet, formed within the National Conservatory School of Music (Lisbon - Portugal) is created by musicians with outstanding solo and chamber careers, teachers of that institution.

This project intends to bestow the Conservatory, likewise many of its fellow-schools in the world, with a reference group in the strings’ area, capable of developing a permanent teaching activity (quartet master-classes) as well as promoting the school, both in Portugal and abroad.

The ensemble performed in the most recent edition of the “La Folle Journée” Festival, in Lisbon’s Belém Cultural Centre as well as in the Festival “In search of a lost Concert House”, in Lisbon. It performed twice in “La Folle Journée” (2005 and 2006) and in many other venues around the anniversaries of Lopes Graça and Mozart.

It pays a very special attention to the repertoire by contemporary Portuguese composers, having given a few world premieres of such works.Its first CD includes major creations by Lopes-Graça and Antonio Victorino d’Almeida.  

REPERTOIRE  

The NCQ privileges the staging of Portuguese composers' works, considering the relative wealth of international level creations for string quartet by composers such as Santos Pinto, Viana of Mota, Cláudio Carneyro, Luís de Freitas Branco, Frederico de Freitas, Joly Braga Santos, Fernando Lopes-Graça, or the more recent António Victorino d’Almeida, Luís Tinoco, Amílcar Vasques Dias (work dedicated to the NCQ). Nevertheless, the NCQ remains deeply involved in the rendering of the great classical works such as the ones created by Haydn, Mozart, Cherubini, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Dvorak, Tchaikovsky or Shostakovich.

Please report to the sample programmes at the end of this document.  

CURRICULAE OF THE ARTISTS 

LUÍS CUNHA (Violin)   

Performs as recitalist, chamber musician and soloist in most Portuguese towns, in Spain, France, Switzerland and Germany. He has also successfully toured Belgium, Holland, England, Scotland, Ireland, URSS/Russia and Angola and has recorded for several Portuguese radio and TV networks (RDP, RTP, TVI) and Gossteleradio (Russia).

Luís has completed a Master of Arts degree in the Moscow Tchaikovsky's Conservatoire, where he majored under Professor Zorya Chikhmourzaeva.  There, he studied quartet and chamber music under Mikhail Kopelman (Borodin Quartet), Nikolai Zabavnikov (Beethoven Quartet) and Tigran Alikhanov.

A scholarship by the Portuguese state accounts for several years of training at both the International Menhuin Music Academy (Gstaad - Switzerland) and in London, with Yossi Zivoni. He has perfected in master-classes with artists such as Sandor Végh, Yehudi Menhuin and Maria João Pires.

His versatility and skill as interpreter became obvious in the rendering of major works like “The Trout” quintet (live radio transmission), the concertos by Chausson or Paganini’s d minor, the Beethoven, Strauss and Freitas Branco sonatas, Sá Noronha’ Fantasia “Il Trovatore” (EXPO 98 and recording of a CD for BMG/RCA Classics) and Vivaldi’s " Four Seasons " (several concerts and a CD for " BAJJA Records ").  

Alongside, Luís promotes and performs in multi-disciplinary activities – he staged several Musicals for children and has recently recorded music for a film by Edgar Feldman. As a chamber musician, recent highlights include a Santos Pinto’ Quartet first modern performance (and recording of a commissioned CD to the Portuguese Institute of the Arts), a homage concert to Luciano Berio and a stage version of Messiaen’s “Quartet for the End of Times”.

Off-classics, he has collaborated with singer Mísia, in tours worldwide. Luís Cunha teaches violin and chamber music in the National Conservatory School of Music, in Lisbon - Portugal.  

ANNE VICTORINO d’ALMEIDA (Violin)  

Anne Victorino d’Almeida was born the 15^th of December 1978, in France. At the age of eight she began her musical studies at the Fundação Musical dos Amigos das Crianças, in Lisbon, with Inês Barata and, later, Leonor Prado.

In 1997, she studied at the Regional Conservatory of Rueil-Malmaison (France) with Dominique Barbier. From 1999 to 2003, she studied at the National Superior Academy for Orchestra under Agnès Flanagan, where she achieved her degree in music.

There she also had the opportunity of attending a conducting class. She has, since, been invited to collaborate with several orchestras, such as the Lisbon Metropolitan, the Pedro Álvares Cabral and the Gulbenkian orquestras.

Anne is now teaching fulltime at the Lisbon Metropolitan School of Music and the National Conservatory School of Music, in Lisbon - Portugal.  

ISABEL PIMENTEL (Viola)  

Isabel Pimentel studied violin at the National Conservatory (in Lisbon), with Lídia de Carvalho. After majoring, she decided to enrol in viola studies, having the chance to attend the classes of the Belgian renowned Master François Broos until graduation and for several years afterwards.

She has also studied Ancient Music Interpretation with Santiago Kastner. In June of 1988, she was the viola’s 1st prize-winner of the Portuguese Musical Youth's Competition.She initiated an intense orchestral activity as principal viola of the Lisbon Chamber Orchestra and the Gulbenkian Orchestra, with which she has performed as soloist in Lisbon and other cities.

She was also often invited to play with the famous Italian chamber orchestra “I Solisti Veneti”  and solo concertos with Lisbon’s Radio Orchestra.    

As a chamber musician she has been playing regular recitals, staging most of the crucial viola repertoire, and several chamber programmes, with different groups. She is now the heiress of François Broos at the head of the viola class at the National Conservatory School of Music, in Lisbon - Portugal.  

CATHERINE STRYNCKX (Cello)  

Born in France, she studied in Paris as well as in Prague and Basel, where she graduated with distinction with professors such as R. Aldulescu, M. Strauss, S. Vectomov, P. Muller and B. Pergamentchikov.

Later, she attended master-classes with C. Henkel, F. Helmerson, I. Gavrich, G. Kurtag and the Bartok Quartet. In 1989, she was invited to join the International Menhuin Music Academy (Gstaad - Switzerland), where she had the possibility to benefit from the guidance of great personalities of the musical world: Y. Menuhin, N. Magalov, W. Naboré, I. Stern.  

She was principal cello with the Camerata Lysy - Gstaad (1989-1992) and the Orchestre des Pays de Savoie (1993-2000).

In 1989 she was founding member of the Serenade String Trio, with which she has recorded two CDs. She has played as a soloist and chamber musician in the United States, Germany, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Argentina, Thailand, Sultanate of Oman, Malta and Kirghizistan. She recorded for the French (France Musique), Czech, Slovak and Swiss radio-networks.

Catherine is a laureate of the International Competition Vittorio Gui, in Florence, and 1st prize-winner of the International Competitions of Caltanisseta and Trapani.      

SAMPLE PROGRAMMES