Eybler Quartet Chamber Music Master Class

The Eybler Quartet presents a masterclass featuring students from the NEC Chamber Music program.

The Eybler Quartet came together in late 2004 to explore the works of the first century and a half of the string quartet, with a healthy attention to lesser known composers such as their namesake, Joseph Leopold Edler von Eybler. The group brings a unique combination of talents and skills: razor-sharp ensemble skills, technical prowess, expertise in period instrument performance and an unquenchable passion for the repertoire. The Toronto-based ensemble’s live performances have consistently garnered praise as “glowing and committed”, “spirited” and “lively and energizing”. Their recording of Joseph Haydn’s Op. 33 String Quartets for the Analekta label was called “simply a treasure” by Early Music America, “the tempos are beautifully chosen, the ensemble perfect, and the intonation absolutely pure. This is music-making that reflects the deeply human and attractive qualities found in Haydn the composer—good humor, wit, and invention.” Their recording with clarinetist Jane Booth won praise from Gramophone for being “totally engaging performances that breathe life into Backofen’s music”. Their most, Beethoven Quartets, Opus 18 nos. 1-3 garnered this praise from Gramophone: “…the revelations flood in: the swiftness with which the Eyblers take the great Adagio of Op 18 No 1 allows violinist Aisslinn Nosky’s almost vibrato-free period-instrument tone to sound breathtakingly fragile.” Their next recording will be the world premiere of Franz Weiss’s String Quartets Op. 8, nos. 1-2, available soon.

Violinists Julia Wedman and Patricia Ahern, and violist Patrick G. Jordan are members of Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra. Cellist Margaret Gay is much in demand as both a modern and period instrument player. This summer the group will again be on the faculty at the Banff Centre as part of the EQ: Evolution of the String Quartet program.

In September 2022 Patricia Ahern joined the group, replacing founding member Aisslinn Nosky.

The Pratt Performance and Residency Series for Early Music, established by Harold I. and Frances G. Pratt at NEC in 2019, seeks to invite and engage the NEC community with performers and scholars in the Historically Informed Performance field.  Master classes, symposia, and performances by nationally and internationally recognized scholars and performers are funded through this endowment.  In addition, the Performance and Residency and Series aims to provide NEC students with the opportunity to study early music and historically-informed performance with experts in the field, as well as to expand the historical instrument collection at NEC.