The band is composed of Anna Chorążyczewska, Adrian Furmankiewicz, Wojciech Jurkiewicz, and Karol Mruk. All the artists have been awarded at multiple European guitar contests, in both solo and chamber competitions. They all met at I. J. Paderewski Academy of Music in Poznań, where they studied under the supervision of Łukasz Kuropaczewski.
The young artists are now associated with Denmark, where they work and have continued their education pursuing postgraduate diplomas at the Chamber Music Department in Copenhagen. It is worth mentioning that they were the first guitar quartet to obtain such a possibility in the history of Royal Danish Academy of Music. The musicians study under the supervision of Jesper Sivebaek (Scandinavian Guitar Duo) and Tim Frederiksen, an alto cellist, violinist, and specialist in chamber music.
In Icelandic ‘erlendis’ means ‘beyond borders’. The musicians try to go beyond the borders of their own instruments by having lessons with musicians who are not guitarists. They polished their musical skill under the esteemed cellist Karol Marianowski, a member of Meccore String Quartet. They have also studied under Jakub Jakowicz, Marek Mos (the artistic director of the AUKSO Chamber Orchestra) and Krzysztof Polonek (Berlin Piano Trio).
The band's repertoire features compositions composed for guitar quartets but also studies and transcripts of classical music masterpieces and contemporary works. They perform works written by Mozart, Bach, Boccherini, Paganini, Brouwer, Schubert, Bizet, and many others. Marcin Sikorski, a lecturer and respected pianist, said about Erlendis Quartet:
A listener’s happiness in communing with their creations comes from the fact that with a wide variety of colours and articulations one is able to conjure emotional and sensual experiences. One can sense tunes and scents circling around the evening air while being transferred to where Claude Debussy wanted music to transfer its listeners.
The quartet gives concerts intensively, having already performed in Poland and abroad: Germany, Denmark, Holland, Italy, Ukraine, and Latvia. The exceptionalness of the project – guitar quartets are not popular in the world of classical music, compared to guitar duets – brings interest among musicians and institutions dedicated to chamber music, as well as the guitar environment.
Erlendis Quartet has been awarded first prize at the International Guitar Contest in Olsztyn (2014), second prize at the Chamber Music Contest in Bydgoszcz (2015), first prize at the International Chamber Music Competition in Aschaffenburg (Germany, 2016), second prize at the 5th International Chamber Music Competition in Cremona (Italy, 2016), and the special prize at the Orlando International Chamber Music Contest in Kerkrade (Holland, 2016).
Contact with the quartet: http://www.erlendisquartet.com/, e-mail: erlendisquartet@gmail.com
Author: Filip Lech, December 2016, translated by AW, December 2016