Friends of Music - Modigliani String Quartet
New Orleans Friends of Music has been bringing the finest chamber musicians in the world to our community since 1955. In addition to a full season of public concerts at Dixon Hall, in partnership with Tulane University, NOFOM provides training and music education activities for both artists and audiences.
A volunteer-led organization, NOFOM supports the full range of chamber music repertoire through performances and commissions, curates educational activities that encourage all ages to appreciate the art form, and showcases exceptional emerging chamber musicians.
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“One of today’s best quartets in the world...Balance, transparency, symphonic comprehension, confident style, their performance reached a very high and inspiring level ” Harald Eggbrecht in Süddeutsche Zeitung
Founded in 2003, the Modigliani Quartet is recognised as one of today’s most sought- after quartets, featuring regularly in prominent international series and on the world’s most prestigious stages.
In addition to annual tours in the United States and in Asia, the quartet’s numerous European tours have brought them to Wigmore Hall, the Paris Philharmonie, the Théâtre des Champs- Elysées, the Berlin Philharmonie, the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Saint-Petersburg Philharmonia and the Elbphil-harmonie in Hamburg.
After reviving the Rencontres Musicales Evian in 2014, of which they assured the artistic direction for 8 years, the quartet was entrusted with the artistic direction of the Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition in 2020. As part of their festival “Vibre !”, the quartet counts some of the great-est quartets and chamber music ensembles amongst their guests artists. Through masterclasses and workshops, the festival provides an ideal environment to work with and mentor the young gen-eration, a mission at the heart of the quartet’s activities. The quartet is also the founder of the Saint-Paul-de-Vence Festival and the Arcachon Chamber Music Festival, both created in 2011.
The Modigliani Quartet’s rich collaboration with the record label Mirare has led to 15 recordings rep-resentative of their vast repertoire (Schubert, Mozart, Haydn, Mendelssohn, Bartok...), winning numerous awards in France and abroad (Choc de Classica, Diapason d’Or...). On the occasion of their last recording release, the prestigious British magazine“The Strad”selected the quartet as their cover feature.
The Modigliani Quartet also performs and commissions a wide range of contemporary works from composers including Marc-Antony Turnage, Philippe Hersant, Peter Vasks, Kaija Saariaho and Evgeny Kissin.
A year after their founding, the Modigliani Quartet won three First Prizes successively at the Eindhoven International Competition (2004), the Vittorio Rimbotti in Florence (2005) and the prestig-ious Young Concert Artists Auditions in New York (2006). Following studies with the Ysaÿe Quartet and masterclasses with Walter Levin and Gyorgy Kurtag, the Modigliani Quartet were invited to work with the Artemis Quartet at the Berlin Universität der Künste.
The quartet enjoys cultivating close friendships with their chamber music partners, amongst them artists such as Sabine Meyer, Renaud and Gauthier Capuçon, Jean-Frédéric Neuberger, Beatrice Rana, Michel Dalberto, Fazil Say, Augustin Dumay, Amihai Grosz, Gary Hoffman, Paul Meyer, Michel Portal and Daniel Müller-Schott.
The Modigliani Quartet also thanks the SPEDIDAM for its help.
Through the support of generous sponsors, the Modigliani Quartet has the privilege of playing four magnificent Italien instruments.
Amaury Coeytaux plays a 1773 violin by Giovanni Battista Guadagnini,
Loïc Rio plays a 1780 violin by Giovanni Battista Guadagnini,
Laurent Marfaing plays a 1660 viola by Luigi Mariani,
François Kieffer plays a 1706 cello by Matteo Goffriller.
