Tokai String Quartet

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Praised by the Toronto Star for their “emotional investment”and “decisive” interpretations, the Tokai String Quartet is one of Canada’s leading string quartets. The vibrancy that this exciting young ensemble brings to their performances is gaining them enthusiastic audiences across Canada, and has earned the Tokai Quartet a growing demand for performances.The Tokai Quartet is a laureate of the 9th Banff International String Quartet Competition and was also featured on the CBC’s ‘Music Around Us’ and ‘In Performance’. The success of these performances led to repeat invitations from the CBC for the “Music Around Us” 2005/6 series. The quartet has also been invited back to perform for the Kitchener Waterloo Chamber Society and Barrie’s ‘Colours of Music’ Festival in 2006. In 2006, The Quartet will be performing at the University of Toronto in collaboration with the St Lawrence Quartet, at the Metamorphosis Series in Peterborough and in Winnipeg at the Virtuosi Concert Series with guitarist Daniel Bolshoy.The Tokai Quartet had its beginnings in 2002 while three of its members were students at the University of Toronto; here the Quartet benefited from the guidance of the late Lorand Fenyves. The members of the St Lawrence Quartet have also been significant mentors to the Tokai Quartet, their Summer Music Seminars at Stanford University being a source of inspiration and instruction. The Tokai Quartet has also studied with the Emerson, Ying and Orion Quartets, with Scott St. John and with Henk Guittart of the Schoenberg Quartet.The commitment and generosity of their teachers is passed on by the Tokai Quartet in their own flourishing teaching career, which began at the University of Toronto when the Quartet was invited back to give masterclasses. This year the Tokai Quartet was ensemble-in-residence on the faculties of the Silver Creek Summer Music School at the University of Toronto and the Southern Ontario Chamber Music Institute, where intensive schedules saw them coaching numerous ensembles, giving masterclasses and of course, performing.The accomplishments of this gifted ensemble have earned the Tokai Quartet some impressive accolades. In 2003 they were recipients of the Felix Galimir Award, the University of Toronto’s highest award for chamber music. This led to a short concert tour of performances in collaboration with Scott St John, Douglas MacNabney and the St Lawrence Quartet. The following year the Tokai Quartet went on to receive the Sir Ernest MacMillan Memorial Foundation Award for Young Canadian Chamber Music Ensembles, which has facilitated their participation in residencies at the Banff Centre for the Arts and at the Stanford Summer Music Festival. They were further distinguished by the award of a Debut concert fully funded by the Frederick Gaviller Music Foundation, which took place in April 2005. Most recently, Debut Atlantic awarded them an extensive concert tour of Atlantic Canada. This much anticipated event will take place in the spring of 2007.