Terem Quartet
Terem Quartet |
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Terem-Quartet (Russian: Терем квартет) is a musical ensemble from Saint Petersburg, Russia. The ensemble playing in the genre of Crossover was created in 1986. Since that time Terem-Quartet has released 17 Cds and it's repertoire includes more than 500 musical compositions of classical and modern music.
Terem-Quartet has performed more than 2 500 concerts in more than 60 countries. The ensemble is regarded as a symbol of Saint Petersburg because it has represented it's native city in many cultural events all over the world.
The recent line-up includes: Andrey Konstantinov (soprano domra), Andrey Smirnov (bayan-accordion), Mikhail Dzudze (bass balalaika) and Alexey Barshev (alto domra)
History
1980-s
The ensemble was created in 1986 as a project of four Saint Petersburg Conservatory students: Andrey Konstantinov (soprano domra), Andrey Smirnov (bayan-accordion), Mikhail Dzudze (bass balalaika) and Igor Ponomarenko (alto domra). At one time the students were called up for military service. After the first year of this service they were transfered to the local army ensemble which consisted of orchestra, choir and ballet. Some time later an idea to create a new ensemble was born and this one was called "Russian Souvenir". At this time it consisted of a big number of participants and many of them were not able to read musical notes that it why musicians tried to find a special language: they picked out some well-known music pieces and combined them with folk melodies. Then the first line-up of Terem-Quartet was formed: Andrey Konstantinov, Andrey Smirnov, Mikhail Dzudze and Igor Ponomarenko.
At this time we promised each other that just the ensemble will be the main thing for all of us. We have already understood that we are interesting only when we are together. Out "Terem" is not just a beautiful building. There are no chiefs for us, everyone does his bit and it formes what we are building. In our music we [1]
Members
- Andrey Konstantinov (Soprano domra)
- Mikhail Dziudze (Double bass balalaika)
- Alexei Barchtchev (Alto domra), replaced founding member Igor Ponomarenko
- Andrey Smirnov (Bayan accordion)
History
The group was formed in 1986, playing first in Soviet state-sponsored competitions. They had their first paying jobs in 1987. Their first international touring began in 1988 in support of baritone singer Vladimir Chemov. After Chemov was sidelined by illness in 1989, Terem began solo concert tours. In 1991, they met Peter Gabriel at the WOMAD festival. Gabriel helped the group to reach a wider audience in the western world by releasing their albums Terem and Classical on his label, Real World Records.
Discography
- Terem (1992)
- Classical (1994)
- 1,000th Concert live
- No, Russia cannot be perceived by wit (2000)
- Умом Россию не понять (Russian edition of No, Russia cannot be perceived by wit)
- Flea waltz
- Jubilenium
- Anthology part 1
- Anthology part 2
- Anthology part 3
- Russian passion
- "TeremOK''
- "Терем и друзья"
See also
- Terem Quartet official site
- Terem Quartet on Real World Records, Ltd. official site.
- BBC Radio 3 Feature from WOMAD 2005.