Musicians who have made Galway alive to sound of music

They have definitely lifted the standard of music in Galway and they are lovely to work with,” says local musician and teacher Carl Hession about the Romanian string quartet ConTempo, who will celebrate their 10th anniversary as Galway’s Music Residency next weekend.

Carl teaches at the city’s Coláiste Iognáid, where ConTempo regularly hold free music workshops for students, generally in Leaving Cert, on exam-related topics.

Workshops with schools and community groups are part of the remit of this hugely-talented classical quartet, which moved to Galway in 2003 after successfully auditioning to become Musicians in Residence.

They came under the umbrella of Music for Galway, supported by local businesses, to develop an appreciation of classical music locally through workshops, performances and collaborations with other musicians.

The ConTempo musicians – violinist Bogdan Sofei, violinist Ingrid Nicola, viola player Andreea Banciu and cellist Adrian Mantu – have been linked professionally and personally since their days in music college in Bucharest in the early 1990s.

Bogdan and Ingrid are married to each other and it’s a similar story for Andreea and Adrian. The two couples, who formed ConTempo in 1995, now live between Moycullen and Oughterard in Roscahill. Each couple has two children.

“We are creating a new string quartet,” says Bogdan with a smile. Galway is firmly home for the four, although they didn’t envisage that when they first came here on a three-year contract.

“When we came here, one of the aims of our project was to bring classical music to remote areas,” recalls Bogdan. They certainly have done that.

Over the past ten years ConTempo have worked with over 15,000 students countywide. They have presented 275 concerts in Galway city and county, performing 240 works from 85 composers, both classical and contemporary. They have collaborated with musicians from 11 different countries and hosted 88 international artists. They have also worked closely with 11 outstanding young new composers.

Between their appearances in Ireland and abroad, they have travelled almost 30,000 miles, going through 815 strings and 16 bows. After all of that Bogdan and Adrian remain as enthusiastic as ever about the project, which is the longest classical music residency in the country.

Cork has the Van Brugh and Limerick has the Irish Chamber Orchestra, but ConTempo “are a unique residency because local performance was a very important aspect of it”, says Adrian. That performance and workshopping aspect has helped them to become part of the Galway community, something that surprised them a little in the beginning.

“Musicians are gypsies, especially classical musicians because we perform music from different composers, who are from different places and different eras,” Adrian explains. “As a string quartet we had travelled a lot and had won a lot of international competitions and prizes. Three years in London at the Royal Academy (after they were awarded a Fellowship) was the longest we had spent anywhere before Galway.”

Their remit here was different, he adds.

For more, read this week's Galway City Tribune.