ROLSTON
STRING QUARTET
“A string quartet demonstrating incredible smoothness of tone and gesture, perfectly precise interplay and the most sensitive emotional understanding, emanated musical magic.”
- TEGERNSEE NEWSPAPER, Germany
BIOGRAPHY
LURI LEE, violin
JASON ISSOKSON, violin
HEZEKIAH LEUNG, viola
YOSHIKA MASUDA, cello
With their much-anticipated debut recording, Souvenirs, released in November 2019, Canada’s Rolston String Quartet continues to receive acclamation and recognition for their musical excellence. As the 2018 recipient and first international ensemble chosen for the prestigious Cleveland Quartet Award from Chamber Music America, their accolades and awards precede them. In 2016, a monumental year, they won First Prize at the 12th Banff International String Quartet Competition (BISQC) and Grand Prize of the 31st Chamber Music Yellow Springs Competition. That same year, they were also prizewinners at the 2016 Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition and the inaugural M-Prize competition. There is no wonder they were named among CBC Radio’s “30 Hot Canadian Classical Musicians Under 30.”
In the 2017-18 season, they tipped the 100-concert milestone with performances throughout Canada, United States, Belgium, Germany, Italy, and Israel. Highlights included the Smithsonian, Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Koerner Hall, and the Esterhazy Palace. An even busier 2018-19 season included debut performances at Carnegie Hall in New York and Wigmore Hall in London, as well as performances at Freer Gallery, Chamber Music Houston, two major tours in Canada under the Prairie Debut and Debut Atlantic touring networks, and three European tours with dates in Leipzig, Berlin, Lucerne, Heidelberg, Barcelona, Graz, and other centres. As ludwigvan.com states, “they performed with a maturity and cohesion rivaling the best string quartets in the world.”
Rolston String Quartet completed a two-year term as the Yale School of Music’s fellowship quartet-in-residence in spring 2019. They have also served as the graduate quartet-in-residence at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music and have participated in many other great residencies and fellowship programs.
Notable collaborations include performances with renowned artists Andrés Díaz, Gilbert Kalish, Mark Morris, Arthur Rowe, Robert McDonald, Donald Palma, Jon Kimura Parker, and Miguel da Silva.
Additionally, they have worked with songwriter Kishi Bashi and composers John Luther Adams and Brian Current. Primary mentors include the Brentano Quartet, James Dunham, Norman Fischer, and Kenneth Goldsmith, and the quartet has received additional guidance from the St. Lawrence String Quartet, Barry Shiffman, Miguel da Silva, and Alastair Tait.
Rolston String Quartet – Luri Lee (violin), Hezekiah Leung (viola), with new members Jason Issokson (violin) and Yoshika Masuda (cello) – was formed in the summer of 2013 at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity's Chamber Music Residency. They take their name from Canadian violinist Thomas Rolston, founder and long-time director of the Music and Sound Programs at the Banff Centre. The original members are all graduates of The Glenn Gould School (GGS), and it was at the GGS that the original members founded their passion for chamber music and, under the guidance of Barry Shiffman, focused their artistic growth and ensemble playing. In addition, Ms. Lee, was an alumna of The Rebanks Family Fellowship and International Performance Residency Program at the GGS.
Luri Lee plays a Carlo Tononi violin, generously on loan from Shauna Rolston Shaw. The Rolston String Quartet is endorsed by Jargar Strings of Denmark.
September 2020
REVIEWS
“A maturity and cohesion rivaling the best string quartets in the world.”
- MUSICAL TORONTO
"an impressive, deeply serious interpretation...highly sensitive, delicately transparent. A musical sound treasure, blissful."
- SÜDWEST PRESS (Germany)
“A string quartet demonstrating incredible smoothness of tone and gesture, perfectly precise interplay and the most sensitive emotional understanding, emanated musical magic.”
- TEGERNSEE NEWSPAPER (Germany)
"They already belong to a generation of string players performing at a level difficult to imagine in generations past."
- TORONTO STAR
"The quartet played affectionately, shifted colours with the mood of every phrase and showed a caramel blend in tone that only makes you want to hear more."
- CALGARY HERALD
"A new way of playing music unveiled itself, as young artists caused a true wave of excitement. The young Rolston String Quartet's performance was characterized by a suggestive mood when playing Mozart, Janacek and Beethoven, while exploring the soul of the oeuvre in a differentiating manner.”
- MUSIK MERAN (Italy)
“The group has both spirit and polish, plus a sophistication at odds with their baby faces.”
- THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER
"Playing with an astonishing harmonic maturity."
- CALGARY HERALD
“It was as if the air in the Electoral Palace was electrically charged…The bright, transparent, intrinsic sound of this Quartet, which is free of all the lush and opulent, fits perfectly. A great, sophisticated concert rich in discoveries!”
- KAMMERMUSIKVEREINIGUNG TRIER (Germany)
“Filled with virtuosic turns interspersed with emotional eruptions. The Rolstons served up a highly articulated rendering carefully shaped and paced to come off as spontaneous. This is no mean feat. Here, as in all the music they performed, the balance between the instruments was impeccable, as one string player handed off a line of music to the next.”
- MUSICAL TORONTO
“They communicate well to their audience and amongst themselves, igniting their themes with powerful combustibility and infectious élan.”
- CALGARY HERALD
"Mozart's oeuvre sounded noble, cultured and was performed with a very balanced sound between the different instruments, enriched by expressiveness and a deeply felt execution - yet, without overdoing it. No external ingredients were added: the Rolston Quartet let the music speak for itself. [...] The performance of Beethoven's Razumovsky Quartet in E minor from Op. 59 was marked by great artistic maturity and a sound understanding of the piece."
- BADISCHE NEUESTE NACHRICHTEN (Germany)
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