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Aviv String Quartet
Less than a year after its establishment, the Aviv Quartet won second
prize in the International String Quartet Competition at the Prague
Spring Festival in May 1998. Following this achievement, the Aviv
Quartet has won several important international prizes: first prize the
Amadeus Quartet Prize at the Charles Hennen International Competition
in Heerlen, Netherlands in April 1999, and the Grand Prix at the
Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition in July of the same
year. In February 2003, the Aviv Quartet won second prize and a special
prize for Schubert interpretation at the Graz Schubert Competition, and
in July 2003, it shared the top prize at the Bordeaux International
String Quartet competition and was awarded the prestigious Music
Critics' prize.
The quartet is also the recipient of a German Ministry of Education
Prize and a special award of the Israel Ministry of Education. During
2003, the Aviv Quartet was awarded the M. Landau / Israeli Lottery
prize for special achievements.
Since July 1998, it has performed annually as the resident quartet at
the Upper Galilee Chamber Music Festival at Kfar Blum, and all major
venues throughout Israel. Since 1999 it has performed regularly at
international venues such as Wigmore Hall in London, Auditorium du
Louvre, Théâtre de Ville and Théâtre du
Châtelet in Paris, Carnegie Hall in New York, Library of Congress
and Kennedy Center in DC, and Wiener Konzerthause, Beethovenhaus Bonn,
and major festivals such as Dubrovnik, Nante, Perigord, Gotalnd Sweden,
the Israel festival, and others.
The Aviv Quartet has toured the Far East, South and North America,
South Africa, Australia and all major musical centers in Europe.
In 1998, the Aviv Quartet participated in the Amadeus Quartet summer
course at the Royal Academy of Music in London, and in June that year
was the Israeli representative at the Encounters chamber music course
in Jerusalem under the direction of Isaac Stern and with the
participation of members of the Emerson and Juilliard Quartets. In
addition, the Aviv Quartet participated in master classes given by Ivri
Gitlis, Levon Chilingirian, Henry Meyer, Arnold Steinhardt, and Miriam
Fried. Between 1998 and 2000, the Aviv Quartet studied with the members
of the Alban Berg Quartet in Köln, and with Ben-Zion Shamir in
Rotterdam. More recently, the quartet has participated in the
activities of ProQuartet, performing in concerts and in master classes
with Walter Levin, Valentin Erben and Valentin Berlinsky. At the same
time, they have continued their advanced studies with members of the
Ysaÿe Quartet in Paris.
Sergey Ostrovsky,
Evgenia Epshtein
and Shuli Waterman
have been recipients
of scholarships
from the America-Israel
Cultural Foundation,
and Rachel Mercer
has been supported
by the Canada
Council of the
Arts.
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