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2017 Salon Concert

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Joel Quarrington, bass,
Peter Longworth, piano

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For over thirty years, Joel Quarrington has served as the Principal Double Bassist of many ensembles including the Canadian Opera Company, The Toronto Symphony and Canada's National Arts Centre Orchestra and most recently, the famous London Symphony Orchestra. Upon graduation from the University of Toronto, he was awarded the “Eaton Scholarship” as the school’s most outstanding graduate. Joel is a winner of the Geneva International Competition and the CBC Talent Competition, and has made solo appearances across Canada, the United States, Europe and China. He has performed with many of the world’s leading string quartets including the Orford, Vermeer, Cleveland, Colorado, St. Lawrence, Allegri, Artis, Leipzig and Tokyo Quartets as well as the Pinchas Zukerman Chamber Players. Their Sony recording of Schubert’s Trout Quintet with Yefim Bronfman became an instant classic. He is particularly honoured to have been a part of a 1982 recording session with the legendary Glenn Gould for the soundtrack of Timothy Findley’s The Wars.

He performs on an Italian bass made in 1608 by the Italian master, Giovanni Paolo Maggini and is an enthusiastic advocate of the historical practice of tuning the bass in fifths (CGDA, an octave lower than the cello) rather than the customary fourths. He believes fifths tuning leads to clearer and more accurate performance in all ranges of the bass, as well as greater tonal richness.

Joel has made several solo recordings that have made him famous at least in the bass world. His early Bottesini recordings on the NAXOS label are considered by many to be definitive. In April 2010, his recording, “Garden Scene”, won the 2010 Juno Award for Best Classical Recording. It was released by the Analekta label and features music of Korngold, Gliere, M.Weinberg, J.C. Bach and Bottesini. June 2013 marked the release of his most recent recording “Brothers in Brahms”, which features music of Robert Fuchs, Robert Schumann and the 1st Violin Sonata in G op.78 by Johannes Brahms. He was very happy to collaborate with the remarkable young Canadian pianist, David Jalbert for this project and in February 2015 this recording won the prestigious “Prix Opus” as the Outstanding Romantic Classical Recording of the year in Quebec.

In 2011, he received a Special Recognition Award for Outstanding Solo Performance from the International Society of Bassists and in 2015 they awarded Joel the same award for Outstanding Orchestral Performance.

Joel teaches in the summers at the Orford Arts Centre in Quebec’s beautiful Eastern Townships where his master classes have attracted players from around the world. He also teaches at the University of Ottawa and at the Royal Academy of Music in London where he is a “Visiting Artist”.

Retrieved from http://www.joelquarrington.com, image by Fred Cattrol

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Pianist Peter Longworth has established himself as one of the most sought after performers of his generation. Equally comfortable as soloist and chamber musician, he has performed in cities around the world. In North America stops include New York, Chicago, London, Montreal, and Vancouver; abroad, he's performed in London, Moscow, Brussels, Glasgow, and Nice. Peter appears regularly at Kairos Music Festival in Washington state, Music and Beyond Festival in Ottawa, and has made previous appearances at numerous festivals across the continent, including the Malibu Coast Music Festival and the Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival. Mr. Longworth is a founding member of the Duke Piano Trio (with violinist Mark Fewer and cellist Thomas Wiebe), which has performed throughout the United States and Canada. Peter continues performing with Mark, and has appeared in collaboration with many of today's finest instrumentalists including violinist Camilla Wicks, violist Steven Dann, clarinettist Joaquin Valdepenas, and bassist Joel Quarrington.

He has been a soloist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Fairbanks Symphony, the Vancouver Symphony, Kitchener- Waterloo Symphony, and other orchestras in North America. Mr. Longworth has collaborated with conductors such as Bramwell Tovey, Edwin Outwater, Eduard Zilberkant, Nikolas Caoile, and Joseph Rescigno.

After a successful performance during the 11/12 season, Peter was invited back to perform during the 12/13 season with the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra and he will also appear with the Canadian Sinfonietta.

Since 1991, Mr. Longworth has been a faculty member of the Glenn Gould School in Toronto. Through his work there as a private teacher, and as one of the key facilitators of the chamber music and collaborative programs, he has influenced many of the most gifted young musicians of the next generation.

Retrieved from http://www.peterlongworth.ca, image by Tara McMullen