Unique opportunity to train with ConTempo Ensemble

It’s fair to say that in their seven years living in Galway, Romanian musicians Ingrid Nicola, Bogdan Sofei, Andreea Banciu and Adrian Mantu have visited more parts of the county than most local people ever will.

As members of the ConTempo String Quartet, which has been Galway’s Ensemble in Residence since January 2003, their remit is to perform live classical music in places where it wouldn’t normally be performed. ConTempo visits schools all around Galway, as well as performing free concerts in venues countywide.  

The group is made up of Bogdan Sofei on first violin, his wife Ingrid Nicola on second violin, Andreea Banciu on viola and her husband Adrian Mantu on cello.

In addition to performing, the four also teach music and nurture aspiring professional musicians, explains Ingrid. As part of this, they have been running an Apprentice Ensemble Project since 2006 and are currently seeking applications for the coming year.

Auditions will be held in early March and the selected musicians will receive lessons from ConTempo members from April. The winners will also be given practice space and resources to improve their playing skills, both individually and as part of an ensemble. And they will also be given the opportunity to perform in a professional capacity, both with Con Tempo and separately.

This is a fine opportunity to train with one of the finest string quartets worldwide. ConTempo began in 1995 when four students at the Music University in Bucharest, Romania joined forces. They were subsequently awarded a three-year residency at the Royal Academy of Music in London, teaching and studying during their time there. After three years in London they moved to Madrid, to work with musical master Rainer Schmidt who had played with the Hagen Quartet.

“We were in Madrid when we heard about this international position in Galway for a musical residency and we came here and did an audition,” says Ingrid.

A few years previously they had taken part in a music competition in London, winning a trip to Galway where they played a concert as part of the Music for Galway season. That visit was a happy one, although they had no idea then that they would ever be settling here, under a partnership now funded by bodies such as NUIG, the Arts Council, Galway City Council, GMIT, Galway City and County Council.

Coming here was a good move, says Ingrid. Because Irish people are Mediterranean in temperament, the four feel right at home.“People are so lovely. They are more Latin in spirit that Saxon.”And although Ireland doesn’t have a tradition of classical music, the ConTempo project has received a warm response.

Ingrid believes that is due to the rich seam of Irish music that can be found throughout Galway.

“Because there is a large tradition of Irish music, even people who don’t know much about classical music have an ear that is open to it.“And the response is pretty much the same everywhere. For students to have instruments performed so close to them . . . they are amazed.” The Ensemble in Residence work is fascinating and rewarding, she says. And they are continually broadening their remit.

Since last Autumn they have been involved in a new programme to help make the Leaving Cert music course more accessible.

“The Leaving Cert in Ireland is such a huge thing – more than in Romania, so at least this will take the pressure off one subject,” says Ingrid. “There are some pieces in the music curriculum that are difficult to understand, so we go in and explain about the lives of composers and their work, and that helps.”

But right now, she wants to highlight the benefits of the Apprentice Ensemble Project.

“The aim of the project is to have a quartet in residence and we would make chamber music accessible to them. They will take part in concerts and have tuition with Con Tempo,” she explains.

Their first Apprentice Ensemble in residence was a string quartet called Carousel which worked with Con Tempo from 2006/7. That was composed of two sets of siblings from Loughrea, so there was a real family vibe to the project that year, laughs Ingrid. The second group, SoundPost consisted of music teachers from the city’s Galway Technical Institute (GTI) and Gort Community School“Up to now it’s been a very successful project, and for the next stage, we want to have two apprentice quartets,” says Ingrid.

For more, read page 31 of this week's Connacht Tribune.