PREVUE // STRING QUARTET
NEW ORFORD STRING QUARTET
this year, and are setting out on an eightdate western tour, joined by guests on select dates (in Edmonton, it'll be Aaron Au on viola), to be followed by Ontario and Quebec tours in 2012. "I can't speak for the other three, but variety's the spice of life," Wan says. "I think any time I'm in orchestra for a little bit too long, I'm yearning to do more solo or chamber stuff, and y'know, I'm sure if I were to go on tour with this
quartet for more than three weeks, we would start getting sick of each other. So it's kind of nice to change it up ... When we have a specific goal in mind, like a recording or a tour, we work really well together. I think if we had too much time to prepare for something, I don't think the results would be as special." Paul Blinov
// paul@vueweekly.com
THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS CD RELEASE PARTY with
Nadine Kellman, Brian Gregg, & Chris Daly DECEMBER 10th at BRIXX BAR & GRILL 10030 – 102 Street What's so funny guys?
Sun, Dec 4 (7:30 pm) Muttart Hall, $20 – $30
'I
have a concert in a couple hours; I'm actually watching the Oilers game right now," says violinist Andrew Wan, when he picks up his phone in Montréal. He lives out there now, but still has some vested hometown pride for Edmonton, where he grew up (hey, and that was Friday's game, so he saw the team chalk up a win). Out in Quebec, he's the current Concertmaster of the Montréal Symphony Orchestra—one of the youngest to ever hold the position—an extenstively well-toured musi-
cian and, most pertinently, one of the four corners of the New Orford String Quartet. It's a name that comes attached to a legacy: the original Orford String Quartet, which debuted back in 1965, was a Canadian institution on the classical scene. That group called it quits in 1991, but two years ago the name was resurrected with fresh faces and, in reference to that, the word "new" added into the title. Wan was asked by fellow violinist Jonathan Crow to join. "He gave me a call because the director at the time [of the Orford music fest] asked him to initiate this quartet, and
to carry on this tradition," Wan explains. "And then he called Brian Manker, who's also on faculty on Orford and who's also incidentally the principal cellist in my orchestra ... and then I called my friend from Juliard, Eric [Nowlin, viola], who played in the Toronto symphony." Unlike the original quartet, Wan and the other three aren't invested in it full time, but he also notes the amount of time they're putting into the group seems to be growing exponentially. After an acclaimed debut in 2009 and an equally-praised pair of concerts in 2010, they've already done a handful of shows
VUEWEEKLY DEC 1 – DEC 7, 2011
DOORS at 9:00 SHOW 9:30 $10 COVER
MUSIC 41