On 22nd September 2016 NeoQuartet performed at the prestigious Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing with Chinese pianist Dai Bo. The young musician is also one of the most talented Chinese composers, winner of numerous composer awards, as well as prominent expert on Polish contemporary music. The programme of their concert included Dai Bo's work entitled Reflection 2. Apart from this piece, the musicians performed mostly works of Polish composers: Four Pieces for String Quartet by Paweł Szymański, String Quartet No. 2 by Krzysztof Penderecki and Piano Quintet by Grażyna Bacewicz. The audience could also hear Mapangyong Cuo by Chinese composer Ye Xiaogang and Alfred Schnittke's Piano Quintet.
Few days after the concert in Beijing, on 26th September 2016, NeoQuartet performed at the Shanghai New Music Week. The festival, organized by the prestigious Shanghai Conservatory of Music, has been held since 2008. In spite of its short history, Shanghai New Music Week has already become one of the three most important contemporary music events in China, alongside Beijing Modern Music Festival and China – ASEAN Music Week in Nanning. During their concert in the He Luting Concert Hall at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, the artists performed a programme including solely pieces of Polish composers: String Quartet by Witold Lutosławski, String Quartet No. 2 by Krzysztof Penderecki, String Quartet No.1 'Already It Is Dusk' by Henryk Mikołaj Górecki and Four Pieces for String Quartet by Paweł Szymański.
NeoQuartet is a string quartet focused on performing contemporary classical music, made up of Karolina Piątkowska-Nowicka (1st violin), Paweł Kapica (2nd violin), Michał Markiewicz (viola) and Krzysztof Pawłowski (cello). The quartet is one of the most active Polish chamber ensembles specialising in the new music performance, aiming at collaborating with contemporary composers and making their music familiar to the wider audience. NeoQuartet's repertoire includes compositions by Steve Reich, George Crumb, Alfred Schnittke and Krzysztof Penderecki, to name a few. Moreover, the quartet premiered several pieces by young Polish composers, such as Agnieszka Stulgińska, Marek Czerniewicz, Aleksander Kościów and Dariusz Przybylski. NeoQuartet has published several CD albums with music composed by: Dosia McKay (USA – Gavia Music), Aleksander Kościów (Poland – DUX Records) and Joanna Bruzdowicz (Poland – Acte Prealable). All the recordings were very well received by critics and music lovers.
The quartet performs both in Poland and abroad (Ukraine, Switzerland, Russia, Italy, Lithuania, China) and has participated in festivals such as Gdańsk Music Festival, Sopot Classic International Festival, Ukrainian Biennale of New Music, Jerzy Waldorff Summer Festival in Radziejowice, New Music Days (Dni Muzyki Nowej, Gdańsk), Musica Electronica Nova (Wrocław), Festival Contrasts (Lviv), Another Space Festival (Moscow) and Warsaw Autumn. In 2015 the quartet toured China, performing at the Beijing Modern Music Festival and the China-ASEAN Music Week in Nanning.
NeoQuartet is the organiser of the NeoArte Festival named the New Music Spectrum, held in Gdańsk since 2012. Each year the festival features another outstanding composer as the guest of honor. So far the event hosted Paweł Szymański, Elżbieta Sikora and Cezary Duchnowski. Among the festival performers worth mentioning are Motion Trio, Kwartludium, Szabolcs Esztenyi, Ensemble Nostri Temporis, Kuba Kapsa Ensemble and Agata Zubel. Since 2013, the festival's formula has been gradually expanded by adding composer workshops, contemporary improvisation workshops and workshops for children.
NeoQuartet's concerts in China are organised by Beijing Poly Forbidden City Theatre Management and Shanghai Conservatory of Music, with the support of the Polish Institute – Culture Service of the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Beijing and Culture.pl.
Sources: promotional materials, neoquartet.pl, written and translated by AW, 13 Sep 2016