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Dear Friends,

As we head toward our final concerts both here and out “east”, we encourage you to enjoy the beautiful offerings of Quartet Fest West.

Running from June 26-July 8th, these full days of music making promise to be more exciting than ever!

Returning guest artists include the brilliant Penderecki String Quartet and the indomitable Cuarteto Bellas Artes who you all may remember as Cuarteto Chroma when they were the Graduate String Quartet at UVic.

This will be a celebration of string trios, quartets, piano ensembles, octets and more!

Students are coming from as far as the middle east and from across Canada and the United States. We are delighted to be partnering again with St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church for a mid-festival participants concert in their beautiful sanctuary in downtown Victoria.

As always, festival pass holders are welcome to masterclasses and workshops as well as the many concerts being offered.

LSQ’s Final Concert: The LSQ’s farewell concerts on August 18th and 20th are sold out. A waitlist is being taken for the concert on the 18th.

If you have missed out on the final concerts, by all means come to Quartet Fest West!

Film Premiere, August 19th at Cinecenta

Creating Harmony is a documentary film that follows the LSQ in their 30th anniversary journey performing the Shostakovich Cycle. Recent events in the Ukraine highlight how the music of Shostakovich continues to be so remarkably relevant today.

Join the LSQ and director Arwen Hunter for a Q & A after each showing. Get your tickets here.

We acknowledge and respect the lək̓ʷəŋən peoples on whose traditional territory the university stands and the Songhees, Esquimalt and WSÁNEĆ peoples whose historical relationships with the land continue to this day.​  

We acknowledge the devastation that government-created residential schools and Indian hospitals has inflicted on the health and wellbeing of Indigenous peoples and the ongoing effects of concentric trauma that continue to this day.  

Since 1986, the members of the Lafayette String Quartet have been entertaining audiences all over North America and Europe and teaching some of Canada’s finest young string players. Their residency at the University of Victoria is rich in local performances and community involvement. Their concerts in Canada and abroad are hailed as “Passionate, riveting, and with flawless ensemble.”

Though the LSQ will be giving its final performance in August, Professors Ann Elliott-Goldschmid, Joanna Hood and Pamela Highbaugh Aloni continue to teach, coach and mentor fine young string players from all over the world at UVic’s School of Music.

FUTURE STUDENTS: If you are a high school student, a third or fourth year bachelors student or a member of a pre-formed quartet interested in studying at UVIC or attending Quartet Fest West ’23 please click here: https://lafayettestringquartet.ca/study/