Music festival has splendid strings attached Festival celebrates glory of the string quartet By: Holly Harris Posted: 2:00 AM CDT Saturday, May. 23, 2026

The Agassiz Chamber Music Festival celebrates the glory of the string quartet when it launches its weeklong festival, Quartetfest, Sunday night.

The 27-year old annual event spearheaded by founding Ottawa-based artistic director/cellist Paul Marleyn and hosted by Andrea Ratuski, runs nightly through Saturday, May 30. Local chamber music buffs will be treated to a full slate of intimate chamber concerts performed by internationally renowned guest artists, pre-show chats, an emerging artist showcase, as well as four prizewinners from the 2026 Agassiz Glimpses of the Future competition.

“There’s just something very special about the string quartet,” the British-born Marleyn says over the phone when asked about the genre’s enduring appeal. “It’s a little bit like a choir with a perfect combination of voices that covers the full tonal range in a way that other chamber music can’t do.

“The form also attracts music of the highest quality from such composers as Beethoven, Mozart and Haydn, as well as more contemporary artists.”

Audiences will be able to judge for themselves, with this year’s lineup ranging from classical standards to jazz, and diverse multicultural works. Even American rock legend Chuck Berry’s music makes a cameo appearance this year.

“The form also attracts music of the highest quality from such composers as Beethoven, Mozart and Haydn, as well as more contemporary artists.”

First out of the gate is Clara and Johannes (Sunday), a concert highlighting the close personal and professional ties between 19th-century German composer/pianist Clara (Wieck) Schumann (husband of Robert) and Johannes Brahms.

Canadian violinist Amy Hillis, Marleyn and pianist Stephen Runge (current dean of the Desautels Faculty of Music) will be performing Schumann’s Piano Trio in G Minor. The bill also includes the inaugural appearance of the Agassiz Quartet — violinist Karl Stobbe, Hillis, violist Dave Harding and Marleyn — in Brahms’s Piano Quartet No. 2 in A major, Op. 26.

“Clara Schumann and Brahms were very close friends for many decades. I wanted to focus on their extraordinary relationship, which also included Robert, as they both inspired each other in a significant way,” Marleyn says of his programming choice for this year’s opener.

The Callisto String Quartet meets Agassiz (Monday) features another Agassiz debut: the award-winning, Ohio-based Callisto Quartet featuring violinists Eric Tsai and Gregory Lewis, violist Eva Kennedy and cellist Hannah Moses performing Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 5 in A Major, Op. 18, No. 5.

Lest one fear all chamber music is penned by those proverbial “dead white European composers,” the same bill also features a pair of contemporary works. Reena Esmail’s Ragamala for String Quartet (2015) blends Hindustani and Western classical music traditions into a melting pot of compositional forces, with each of its four movements based on a traditional “raag.”

Manitoba composer Karen Sunabacka’s Reel Waltz (2022) pays homage to her Métis and Mennonite roots, melding the toe-tapping energy of a fiddle reel with the elegance of a waltz.

A Juno Award-winning pianist and a pillar of Winnipeg’s vibrant jazz scene, Will Bonness is back with a bang, swinging hard with so-cool-it-hurts selections by John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk and the Modern Jazz Quartet in Will Bonness Jazz Quartet (Tuesday). He’ll be joined by Niall Cade, tenor saxophone; Julian Bradford, bass; and Rob Siwik, drums, in their celebration of jazz quartets.

Another can’t miss is Five Play Cello (Thursday), which sees Marleyn appear with fellow cellists Moses, Elie Boissinot, Samuel Nadurak and Ethan Allers, accompanied by Runge. The eclectic bill takes listeners from the refined halls of European baroque to sultry, tango-soaked bordellos of Argentina, and features the world premiere of Nadurak’s sophomore composition, Adagio for 5 Cellos.

“Sam is a very talented composer, and really knows how to write for the cello. He’s very imaginative, and very creative in his writing,” Marleyn says of the 20-something musician, who currently performs with the WSO under its new principal cellist, Boissinot.

For those who still need more, Souvenir de Florence (Friday) whisks listeners to disparate worlds, with the Callisto Quartet first treating listeners to Mozart’s String Quartet No. 19 in C major, K.465 a.k.a. the “Dissonance,” as well as Canadian composer Derek Charke’s Sepia Fragments, commissioned by the St. Lawrence String Quartet. Rounding out the night is Tchaikovsky’s lone string sextet, Souvenir de Florence, Op. 70. composed during the summer of 1890.

“Sam is a very talented composer, and really knows how to write for the cello. He’s very imaginative, and very creative in his writing.

The festival wraps up with Gala Finale — from Bach to Babylon (Saturday, May 30), the evening bookended by J. S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto, No. 3 in G Major and No. 6 in B flat Major.

Also featured on that same program is Brandon-born composer Sid Robinovitch’s Adieu Babylon, featuring Hillis and Runge, written at the height of the Persian Gulf War in February 1991 and still resonating in today’s turbulent times.

“It’s kind of ironic that we’re in a very similar place again,” Marleyn muses of the politically charged work. “This piece has that relevance again.”

Last but not least, Mendelssohn’s String Octet in E flat Major, Op. 20 closes the festival on a high note, in which the stage will fill with string players.

“It’s kind of ironic that we’re in a very similar place again … This piece has that relevance again.”

Naturally, Marleyn sings praises for the genre that has inspired composers and performers for countless generations, one that’s still going strong in the 21st century.

“The string quartet is a very intimate, very conversational type of music,” the artist says with palpable enthusiasm.

“It’s like a whole world captured in just four voices.”

All performances will be held at the Canadian Mennonite University’s Laudamus Auditorium, located at 500 Shaftesbury Blvd.

The 2026 Agassiz Chamber Music Festival opens Sunday, May 24 and runs through Saturday, May 30. For tickets or further information, visit:

winnipegfreepress.com/hollyharris