Dear Friends Of Classical And Contemporary Music,

La Maison Française is proud to host a unique performance by the
"Diotima String Quartet" on Monday April 10 at 7: 30 p.m., as
part of its 2006 Contemporary Music series. These outstanding
musicians impressed our audience - as well as the media back
in 2005 (Tim Page described them as "excellent players" in
his Washington Post article entitled "A French-American Specialty
of the House"). We are thus very excited to bring them back
to our auditorium. Please find details below:

Hosokawa, Silent Flowers
Berg, Lyric Suite
Webern, Six Bagatelles, op. 9
Ferneyhough, Quartet No. 2
Janáček, Quartet No. 2

We believe it is our mission to present this repertoire
and introduce to our public such talented and spirited artists.
As you know, this music is rarely performed and building this
series is a true challenge. That is why I would like to ask
you, as a loyal patron of La Maison Française and connoisseur
of the arts, to help us in our outreach endeavor. We would be
most grateful if each of our patrons would bring a new guest
along or perhaps forward this information to someone in
his/her entourage.

In advance, thank you very much for your support.
I hope I will have the pleasure to welcome you and your
friends to La Maison Française for this rare event.

Cordially,
Roland Celette
Cultural Attaché
Director of the Maison Française

When : Monday, April 10th at 7:30 p.m.
Where : La Maison française – 4101 Reservoir Road, NW
Admission : $20
Reservation required : please reply to this email with your
surname, first name and number of seats desired.

Culturel.WASHINGTON-AMBA@diplomatie.gouv.fr

------------
DETAILS
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Quatuor Diotima, founded by graduates of the Paris and Lyon
Conservatoires in 1996, was awarded 3rd prize at the 1998 Carl
Klingler Competition, Berlin, 1st prize at the FNAPEC Competition,
Paris in 1999, and the Contemporary Music Prize at the London
String Quartet Competition in 2000. Also in 2000, at the
invitation of the organisation ProQuartet, they began a two-year
residency at the Centre Européen de Musique de Chambre,
Fontainebleau. ProQuartet continues its special
relationship with Diotima, enabling them to work closely with
composers during the preparation of contemporary works
for performance and recording.

The Quartet’s name pays tribute to Luigi Nono’s work
Fragmente Stille, an Diotima, affirming their strong commitment
to the twentieth-century repertoire, from Bartok and the
Second Viennese School to Carter, Xenakis, Lachenmann and
Ferneyhough. It is their aim, however, to perform contemporary
music and twentieth-century classics in the context
of the Classical and Romantic string quartet tradition

In this process of exploring the development of quartet
repertoire
from its origins to the present day, the Quatuor Diotima
has been
greatly assisted by the teaching of Jean Sulem and
master classes
with Walter Levin and the Alban Berg String Quartet.
The Quatuor
Diotima has performed all over France and at major
venues/events
in Paris including the Auditorium du Louvre, Festival
d’Automne,
Musée d’Orsay, Festival Présences, Salle Gaveau, Cité de
la Musique,
and Ircam’s Agora Festival. They have also given concerts
for the Berlin Philharmonie, MaerzMusik Berlin, Konzerthaus
Dortmund, Radio Bremen,
South West German Radio, Zurich New Music Days, Musica
Strasbourg
(Série and Festival), Ars Musica Brussels, Handelsbeurs
Gent,
Gulbenkian Foundation Lisbon, and the Alicante Festival.

During the summer of 2004 Diotima took part in the first
performances of
Birtwistle’s The Io Passion at the festivals of Aldeburgh
and Bregenz
and the Almeida Theatre London, and were resident at the
Kuhmo Chamber
Music Festival in Finland. Their 2004/05 season began with
performances
of a new work by Hanspeter Kyburz, commissioned by the
Berlin Festival
and Musica Strasbourg, followed by concert tours of Japan
and
Central/South America.

Highlights of 2005 included concerts for the Fondazione
Spinola, Genoa,
Musica Nova Helsinki and Archipel in Geneva
(Dillon commission), a
return visit to the Aldeburgh Festival, a residency at
the festival June
in Buffalo followed by engagements in New York and Washington,
and
appearances at the Takefu Festival in Japan,
Musica Strasbourg, the
Beethovenfest Bonn, the Budapest Autumn and Huddersfield
festivals. And
the Konzerthaus Berlin has invited Diotima to take
part in a series
celebrating Lachenmann’s 70th birthday;

Diotima’s first major CD, Lachenmann’s Reigen seliger
Geister coupled
with Nono’s Fragmente-Stille, an Diotima (ASSAI 222 492)
has received a
‘Coup de coeur’ from the Académie Charles Cros and a
‘Diapason
découverte’. Quatuor Diotima received the prize for

‘Jeunes talents’ at the ceremony of the ‘Diapason d’or
de l’année’ in Paris.


















Franta (Czechoslovakian born, 1930, French artist), Subway, acrylic on canvas, 1992

Image credit: (c) Franta Courtesy Galerie Art204 Düsseldorf. All rights reserved. With thanks

http://www.galerie-art204.de/darfran2.htm