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ABOUT

Keuris Quartet (KQ) is an international saxophone quartet, specializing in the interpretation of classical contemporary music. After winning First Prize at the inaugural Strasbourg International Saxophone Quartet Competition in 2015, KQ gained international recognition and is considered as one of the brightest saxophone quartets performing today. In 2017, KQ won the Second Prize at the prestigious M-Prize International Chamber Arts Competition in Ann-Arbor, MI (USA). 

Founded in 2013 in Amsterdam, the quartet was named after a Dutch composer Tristan Keuris (1946-1996), whose oeuvre includes two highlights of the contemporary saxophone quartet repertoire. The main aim of the quartet is to bring contemporary music to a broader audience by placing their program into a context that makes the music and its emotions easy to perceive. 

Since 2016, KQ is regularly performing and giving workshops at the Gaudeamus Music Week (Utrecht), as well as Singapore Saxophone Symposium, Thailand International Composers Festival and more. Repertoire of KQ includes major commissions to contemporary composers such as Thierry Tidrow, Christian Lauba, Alexey Retinsky. In 2019, KQ started a collaboration with Amstel Quartet and recorded an album “Todos los fuegos el fuego” by Maxim Shalygin, which was acclaimed as one of the best classical albums of the year in the Netherlands.

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Evgeny Novikov
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Andreas Mader
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Michal Grycko
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Juan Manuel Dominguez
About

VIDEO

Keuris Quartet presents 'Piece of cake'
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Keuris Quartet presents 'Piece of cake'

Keuris Quartet presents 'Piece of cake'

01:12
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Passione Alternative  - Keuris Quartet & Elisabeth Hetherington & Marcel Wierckx

Passione Alternative - Keuris Quartet & Elisabeth Hetherington & Marcel Wierckx

40:33
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Tristan Keuris - Saxophone Quartet (1970)

Tristan Keuris - Saxophone Quartet (1970)

09:19
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Maxim Shalygin "Insane dances" [performed by Keuris Quartet]

Maxim Shalygin "Insane dances" [performed by Keuris Quartet]

15:15
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AUDIO

KQTV - Episode 12: PARMA China Concert Tour 2019 - Part 4 (Epilogue)

Keuris Quartet
KQTV - Episode 12: PARMA China Concert Tour 2019 - Part 4 (Epilogue)
KQTV - Episode 12: PARMA China Concert Tour 2019 - Part 4 (Epilogue)

KQTV - Episode 12: PARMA China Concert Tour 2019 - Part 4 (Epilogue)

05:18
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KQTV - Episode 11: PARMA China Concert Tour 2019 - Part 3

KQTV - Episode 11: PARMA China Concert Tour 2019 - Part 3

05:34
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KQTV - Episode 10: PARMA China Concert Tour 2019 - Part 2

KQTV - Episode 10: PARMA China Concert Tour 2019 - Part 2

05:11
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KQTV

Videos

PROJECTS

Piece of cake

Chiel Meijering - Kwispelgerst

Dan VanHassel - Schizoid Devices (written for KQ)

Louis Andriessen - Facing Death

Michael Torke - June, July

Phil Woods - Three Improvisations 

This year KQ celebrates its 10th anniversary and on this occasion, we have created "Piece of Cake" - a program meant to turn a concert into a party! The program consists of a combination of American and Dutch compositions with jazz influences.

“Piece of Cake” starts with an energetic, extremely groovy piece by Chiel Meijering – Kwispelgerst. In Schizoid Devices by Dan VanHassel the saxophone quartet transforms into a demented machine built of squeaks and pops and other percussive sounds, which creates a cool beatbox atmosphere.

Inspired by Autobiography of Miles Davis in late eighties, Louis Andriessen creates Facing Death – the central piece of this program. The whole composition is one long development in Charlie Parker’s fast tempo. Originally written for strings, the saxophone version seemed to be a logical step since the early bebop and the art of Charlie Parker are the main subjects in this piece. Andriessen even uses quote fragments of Charlie Parker improvisations, as well as one original melody: Ornithology.

The second half of ‘’Piece of Cake’’ program consists of lighter repertoire for saxophone quartet such as June and July by Michael Torke – peaceful, transparent structures and harmonies, quasi minimalistic and very idyllic piece. Three Improvisations by Phil Woods bring the audience again into a jazzy mood and transforms the program into a jam session! Enjoy your ’Piece of Cake’!

Todos los fuegos el fuego

Composer: Maxim Shalygin

Title: “Todos los fuegos el fuego” 1, based on the eponymous book by Julio Cortázar

Instrumentation: 8 saxophone players 

Year: 2019

Duration: 70’

Ensemble: Saxophone Octet (co-work between two extraordinary saxophone quartets Amstel Quartet & Keuris Quartet)

Commissioner: November music and Dag in de Branding festivals with financial support of the Fonds Podiumkunsten.

"Todos los fuegos el fuego” constitutes a mysterious and exciting link between music and literature. The project brought together two prominent Dutch saxophone quartets - Amstel Quartet & Keuris Quartet. Never before have two saxophone quartets worked together on a piece of such length and complexity.

For the second chapter of the life-long Similar cycle (where the first one is: “Lacrimosa or 13 Magic Songs” for 7 violins) , Shalygin draws inspiration from “Todos los fuegos el fuego”, arguably the most enigmatic book by the great Cortázar. All short stories in this collection share an exit into a parallel, magic reality, sometimes near to ours, sometimes strikingly different from it. Their forms provoke peculiar musical dramaturgic solutions, whereas an abundance of pseudo-musical forms enables for the creation of a unique atmosphere, using an enlarged variety of performance techniques.

Suite’s overall structure consists of eight parts, performed by eight saxophone players — as many as there are stories in the book (and syllables in its title, which, incidentally, sounds like a saxophone phrase by itself). The saxophone is chosen for a reason, since, for all his knowledge and passion for music, jazz claimed the most of Cortázar’s attention. Jazz, and accordingly the sound of the saxophonewas his muse and constant presence in many of his most well-known fiction. Moreover, the saxophone is involved in many mystical moments in music, literature, and, last but not least, cinema. 

 

“Todos los fuegos el fuego” is a musical cycle that immerses the listener for one hour in a mystical act, sparking off the imagination and opening up unknown emotional conditions.

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SPECTRUM

Georg Friedrich Haas - Saxophone Quartet (2014)
Alexey Retinsky - DUDA (2019)
Maxim Shalygin - Insane Dances (2016) 
Tristan Keuris - Saxophone Quartet (1970) 

In Spectral music, only the sound must serve as a basic material for the piece, as composer Gérard Grisey explains: “We are musicians and our model is the sound, not the literature, sound, not the mathematics, sound, not the theater, visual arts, theory of quanta, geology, astrology or acupuncture.” To summarize, we can say that composers of spectral music are the musicians of the sound and not of the note. In the center of this program KQ performs a masterpiece by Georg Friedrich Haas – Saxophone Quartet (2014). This piece is a great example of spectral music, in which Haas shows a wide range of microtones on saxophones and pushes the limits of harmonic overtones. Following a great spectral music tradition in Austria, the Vienna based composer Alexey Retinsky (b. 1984) writes DUDA (2019) – a saxo- phone quartet in which combines spectral elements with tonal, and folklore with modern style.
 

Commissioned by Gaudeamus Festival and premiered in Singapore by Keuris Quartet in 2016, ‘’Insane Dances’’ by Maxim Shalygin goes beyond the saxophone sound in its traditional sense. With its spectral central part based on multiphonics, this energetic piece invites the listener to join an exciting, provocative, ‘’insane’’ sound experience: Morse code, beatbox, free jazz.

Passione Alternativa

Elisabeth Hetherington | soprano
Marcel Wierckx | visuals

Program:

Gavin Bryars - Alaric I or II (1994)
Claudio Monteverdi - Lamento della Ninfa (1638)
Alan Swanson - Equale per quattro sassofoni. Tre frasi di Dante (2015)
Claudio Monteverdi - Pianto della madonna (1640)
Tristan Keuris - Saxophone Quartet (1970)
Maxim Shalygin - Blessing (2018)
Barbara Strozzi - L’Usignuolo (1644)

Live music is back! Passione Alternativa allows the audience to experience the Dutch tradition of the passions under a completely new light within a small scale setting. Visual artist Marcel Wierckx creates fascinating visual landscapes that react to the music and create another layer of perception. It is an interaction between old and new, voice and saxophones, music and visuals.

The program consists of a selection of pieces from the following composers: Tristan Keuris, Gavin Bryars, Alan Swanson, Maxim Shalygin, Claudio Monteverdi, Barbara Strozzi.
This project is made possible with the support of the Fonds Podiumkunsten.

Projects
Agenda

AGENDA

Contact

CONTACT

 keurisquartet@gmail.com 

+31 6 39 31 62 34

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