Brahms Festival
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Presented by Texas Performing Arts and the Miró Quartet
Recognised as a soloist, chamber musician, and as first violinist of the renowned Tokyo String Quartet from 2002-2013, Martin Beaver is in demand all over the world. After a remarkable career, the quartet concluded their final season in the summer of 2013. Remaining one of Canada's violin ambassadors to the international concert stages, Martin is an active musician for recital, concerto and chamber performances.
Martin has been a concerto artist with orchestras around the world, including the San Francisco Symphony, the National Orchestra of Belgium, Mexico City Philharmonic Orchestra, the Portuguese Radio Orchestra and all major orchestras of Canada. He has collaborated with many esteemed artists including violinist Pinchas Zukerman and eminent conductors such as Kazuyoshi Akiyama, Raymond Leppard, Leon Fleisher, and Charles Dutoit. In recital, Martin has enchanted audiences in cities across North America and Europe. He has also been invited to such festivals as the Ravinia Festival (Rising Stars Series), Concerts Under the Dome (Chicago), Seattle Chamber Music Festival, OstBelgien Festival (Belgium), Music in Blair Atholl (Scotland) and major Canadian festivals.
A recipient of many awards, Mr. Beaver was the first to be awarded the use of the 1729 `ex-Heath' Guarneri del Gesù violin on loan from The Canada Council for the Arts-Musical Instrument Bank. He has also been the recipient of the Canada Council's prestigious Virginia Parker Award, received top prizes at the Queen Elizabeth Competition in Belgium, the 1990 International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, and the 1991 Montreal International Music Competition.
Clive Greensmith, cellist, joined the Tokyo String Quartet in 1999 and has performed with the quartet at the most prestigious venues and concert series across the United States, Europe, Australia and the Far East. Previously, he has held the position of principal cellist of London's Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
As a soloist, he has appeared with the London Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, Mostly Mozart Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic, and the RAI Orchestra of Rome. He has collaborated with distinguished musicians such as Leon Fleisher, Claude Frank, Alicia de Larrocha, Sabine Meyer, Midori, András Schiff and Pinchas Zukerman, and has won several prizes including second place in the inaugural "Premio Stradivari" held in Cremona, Italy.
A regular visitor to many international festivals, Mr. Greensmith has performed at the Marlboro Music festival, The Salzburg Festival, the Edinburgh Festival, the Pacific Music Festival, the Sarasota Music Festival and the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival Yale Summer School of Music. Mr. Greensmith's recording of works by Brahms and Schumann with Boris Berman was recently released on the Biddulph label.
Recordings with the Tokyo String Quartet include the complete Beethoven quartets, and the Mozart 'Prussian' quartets. Mr. Greensmith has served on the faculties of the Royal Northern College of Music, Yehudi Menuhin School and San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
Mr. Greensmith is currently a faculty member at the Colburn Conservatory of Music and the Meadowmount School of Music. A graduate of the Royal Northern College of Music and the Musikhochschule in Cologne, his principal teachers were Donald McCall and Boris Pergamenschikow.