Local ensemble Oriel Quartett come the Volksbühnes Roter Salon this March to play one of American minimalist composer Steve Reich’s most iconic pieces, Different Trains.
Different Trains is a three-movement piece for string quartet and tape written by Steve Reich in 1988. Its original release was performed by the Kronos Quartet and won a Grammy Award in 1989 for Best Contemporary Classical Composition. During World War II, Reich made train journeys between New York and Los Angeles to visit his parents, who had separated. Years later, he pondered the fact that, as a Jew, had he been in Europe instead of the United States at that time, he might have been travelling in Holocaust trains. Steve Reich’s earlier work had frequently used tape, looped and played back at different speeds. However, Different Trains was a novel experiment, using recorded speech as a source for melodies.
After years of playing concerts throughout Germany and England, the Oriel Quartett found its home in Berlin in 2010. Its 4 members are young and experienced musicians: Alice Dixon (Cello), Josa Gehrhardt (Viola), and the Violinists Sabine Besser and Anna Eichholz. The Quartett is engaged in a broad spectrum of music, from ancient to modern and also jazz and pop, making the quartet flexible for all kinds of crossover combinations. Highlights of the last years have included concert programs with sopranos Sarah Dacey (Juice Vocal Ensemble), and Sarah Behrend, pianist John Kameel Farah and percussionist Daniel Eichholz, as well as video collaborations with artist Tanja Schmidt. The group have recorded for Kim Janssen, and for the award winning film ‘Grenzgang’ and played concerts at Colombia Club with Jherek Bischoff and Amanda Palmer.
In the last years the group has amassed a wide range of repertoire, which, alongside from the usual canon of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, and Debussy, ranges from Steve Reich, John Adams, Arvo Pärt and Terry Riley to Vivaldi, William Byrd and Henry Purcell. Every member brings with them a new musical perspective, influenced in part by the varying styles of the institutions in which they have studied: the Universität der Künste in Berlin, the Royal College of Music and the Guildhall School of Music in London and the Hochschule für Musik in Leipzig.
In the short time since studying the members have collected a rich variety of professional experience, which makes for an electrifying collaboration. As single musicians its members work for a variety of ensembles, orchestras, and bands, as well as teaching. This combination makes the coming together of four musicians exciting and innovative; an invitation to any musical endeavour.
Oriel Quartett plays: Different Trains (Steve Reich)
Friday, 3rd March2017 | 20:00 CET
Roter Salon | Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz | 10178 Berlin-Mitte
orielquartett.com | Event @ Facebook | volksbuehne-berlin.de
