Infloribus
The Bayberry String Quartet brings vibrant energy and impeccable precision to our 3nrd Modern Classics album, a bold collection of brand-new string quartets that redefine the boundaries of chamber music.
LIVIA TEODORESCU-CIOCĂNEA's composition, meticulously crafted, offers a fresh perspective on the timeless string quartet format. From the hauntingly beautiful to the explosively rhythmic, the "Inflorius" String Quartet No. 2 pieces explore a wide range of emotions and soundscapes, showcasing the Bayberry String Quartet's mastery and versatility. This album is a thrilling testament to the future of classical music, where tradition meets innovation in every note.
Featured Work:
LIVIA TEODORESCU-CIOCĂNEA
String Quartet nr. 2 "Infloribus"
Dedicated to my daughter Luliana
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The Bayberry String Quartet brings vibrant energy and impeccable precision to our 3rd Modern Classics album, a bold collection of brand-new string quartets
that redefine the boundaries of chamber music.
LIVIA TEODORESCU-CIOCĂNEA's composition, meticulously crafted, offers a fresh perspective on the timeless string quartet format. From the hauntingly beautiful to the explosively rhythmic, the "Infloribus" String Quartet No. 2 pieces explore a wide range of emotions and soundscapes, showcasing the Bayberry String Quartet's mastery and versatility. This album is a thrilling testament to the future of classical music, where tradition meets innovation in every note.
Meet the Composer:
Livia's BIO
Livia Teodorescu-Ciocanea is a Romanian composer and pianist, Professor PhD for composition, forms, analysis and stylistics at the National University of Music Bucharest. Her music explores spectralism, neo-impressionism and postmodernism to a powerful lyric and dramatic effect. She held the title of Adjunct Associate Professor (Research) at the Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music, at Monash University Australia, between 2017 and 2021, currently being Affiliate Professor. In 2022 she was elected a member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts based in Salzburg. For a brief period, in 2021, she undertook the position of artistic director of the Bucharest National Opera. Since 2021 she is a Price artist.
Teodorescu studied composition with Myriam Marbe (bachelor degree), Anatol Vieru (doctoral studies) and Margaret Lucy Wilkins (UK, doctoral studies). She is a member of the Union of Composers and Musicologists in Romania, and her music has been performed in the USA, Australia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan and across Europe, and by leading orchestras in Romania, including the George Enescu Philharmonic, National Radio and Chamber Radio Orchestras and the Orchestra of Bucharest National Opera. She has been awarded a variety of prestigious prizes for her work as a composer, including those of the Union of Composers and Musicologists in Romania in 2001 (for the ballet Le rouge et le noir), 2003, 2006, 2009 and 2016. In 2008 she was awarded the ‘George Enescu’ Romanian Academy Award for Romulus and Remus (a trio for two violins and piano) and, in the same year, the National Order ‘Cultural Merit’ (Knight Grade). She has written a large number of works for various ensembles, vocal and symphonic. Her major works include: The Lady with the dog (2015 rev. 2021) after Chekhov, opera in 4 acts; Le Rouge et le Noir (2000) ballet in 3 acts after Stendhal, Archimedes Symphony (2011 rev. 2017), Rite for enchanting the Air – Flute(s) concerto (1998, premiered by Pierre-Yves Artaud) and Mysterium tremendum – cantata for mezzo-soprano and orchestra (2016). Her scores have been published by Editura muzicală Bucharest, ArsPublica (Italy) and Hoeflich (Germany). Commercial recordings of her music have featured on Toccata Classics: TOCC0448, TOCC0595, TOCC0668 (United Kingdom), Move Records (Australia), and Electrecord (Romania). The Toccata album Livia Teodorescu Ciocanea – Le Rouge et le Noir was included in the Want List (Top 5 selection Fanfare Magazine) for the year 2021 by Colin Clarke. Her Archimedes Symphony featured on the Toccata album Livia Teodorescu Ciocanea – Orchestral works was ranked first in the top 10 Best classical music of the year 2023 in the American Journal The Absolute Sound and in the Top 5 selection for Fanfare Magazine 2023 by reviewer Peter Burwasser.
In 2008 she won an Australian Federal Government grant – the Endeavour Award Postdoctoral Research Fellowship – which was undertaken at Monash University. She has presented conferences in UK (1996, 1999), Norway (2005) USA (2003, 2005, 2006) and Australia (2008). She has been a visiting lecturer at the University of Illinois-Champagne, USA, 2006, Oslo Academy of Music (2005) and Monash University Australia (2008).
Livia Teodorescu is also a concert pianist and she worked for the Bucharest National Opera as accompanist between 1985-2001. She studied piano with Ana Pitiș and Ioana Minei and attended the piano master-classes given by Zoltán Kocsis and Imre Rohmann in the ‘Bartók Seminar’ in Szombathely, Hungary. As a concert pianist she has performed many classical and modern works of the solo and duo repertoire and has accompanied numerous vocal and instrumental recitals. She has played solo recitals (with Chopin, Debussy, Beethoven, Liszt and Schubert among the composers featured) in Romania, Italy and France, and concertos with several Romanian orchestras. She gave the Romanian premiere of two major works by Messiaen: Visions de l'Amen for two pianos (with Luminița Berariu) and the piano-solo part of the Turangalîla Symphony with the George Enescu Philharmonic in Bucharest conducted by Alain Pâris. In 2011 she performed her second Piano Concerto Lebenskraft with the G. Enescu Philharmonic conducted by Paul Nadler.
As a musicologist, she has published three books: Musical Timbre – Composition Strategies (Editura Muzicală, Bucharest, 2004), Treatise of Musical Forms and Analysis (Editura Muzicală, 2005, and Grafoart, Bucharest, 2014) and Streams of Thought in the Music of the 20th and 21st Centuries (Editura Muzicală, 2015). She has published articles as a single author in Contemporary Music Review (Routledge, 2003) and Proceedings of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts (2022) and Tempo – Cambridge University Press. She co-authored articles with Joel Crotty in Perspectives of New Music (2020, released in 2021) and Journal of the International Society for Orthodox Church Music (2014).
Meet the Bayberry String Quartet:
The Bayberry String Quartet is emerging onto the concert scene with recent appearances at Carnegie Hall and the Chautauqua Institute. Other recent concerts include performances at the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society’s CMS Kids, Ridotto Series, White Lake Chamber Music Festival, Chamber Music @ AEIVA, and Fairlane Music Guild, among others. Only in their sixth season, they have enjoyed residencies at the Chicago Suzuki Institute, STEP Birmingham Chamber Music Workshop, Peaks to Plains Institute in Colorado, and PhoenixPhest in Michigan. They have an innovative virtual presence through online collaboration and videos, including work with arranger Rami Vamos and drummer Pete Siers to perform “Frankenstein” by the Edgar Winter Group. BSQ also created a virtual chamber music approach in a program called PhoenixPhest Virtual where they coached student and professional groups across North America in a dozen online workshops. Through their individual and collaborative work, the four musicians have impacted the lives of thousands of musicians.
In June of 2024, BSQ released an album of early Mozart quartets titled “Only Mozarts in the Building.”
Violinist NURIT PACHT bio
Violinist NURIT PACHT was a top prize winner in international competitions including the Irving Klein International Music Competition in California and the Tibor Varga International Violin Competition in Switzerland. As a soloist she was featured in major world events such as the European conference for the inauguration of the Euro in Brussels and under the auspices of the European Commission and United Nations she toured the former Yugoslavia, during the cease-fire in 1996. In 2015, she performed for Pope Francis on his visit to New York and gave a State Department funded recital tour of Ukraine. She has collaborated with stage director Robert Wilson, choreographers such as Bill T. Jones and has worked closely with many of today’s celebrated composers. She has toured as soloist with orchestras around the world including the Houston Symphony, the Pacific Symphony, the Rhode Island Philharmonic and the Israel Chamber Orchestra. The Israeli Composer Noam Sheriff dedicated the violin concerto “Dibrot” to her and she performed it in several prestigious venues of Israel. As a baroque violinist, she has a master’s degree from Juilliard’s Historical Performance program. Ms. Pacht has recorded for Nimbus Records and Toccata Classics.
Violinist STEFFANI KITAYAMA bio
Violinist STEFFANI KITAYAMA splits her time performing, teaching, and dancing with a small ballet company in Michigan. She holds performance degrees from the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory Music and Northwestern University where she studied with Won Bin Yim and Blair Milton. While residing in District of Columbia the past few years, she performed with the Grammy nominated Inscape Chamber Orchestra, the New Orchestra of Washington and various chamber music collaborations throughout the States. A passionate chamber musician, she has studied with some of the great quartet players, notably Mathias Tacke of the Vermeer Quartet and has performed in collaboration with YoYo Ma, Simon Fischer, Peter Salaff, and members of the Cavani Quartet, Lincoln Trio and Artemis Quartet. As a teacher, she has taught in a variety of settings from public school outreach to group classes and private lessons. She currently maintains a private studio with her husband, Gabe Bolkosky in Ann Arbor, Michigan and teaches at institutes across the States and abroad.
Violist GABE BOLKOSKY bio
Violist GABE BOLKOSKY has performed and taught across the United States and abroad. Primarily a violinist, he performs a diverse repertory of classical and contemporary works with different collaborative artists from many genres of music making. Gabe released seven CDs that show his breadth as a musician focused in the areas of contemporary music, jazz and tango as well as traditional classical music. Over the last two decades, Gabe spent six years as Guest Artist at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor teaching 18violin and chamber music and as the Executive Director of The Phoenix Ensemble, a nonprofit organization dedicated to being a musical resource for artists and educational institutions. Gabe also directs PhoenixPhest! and PhoenixPhest! Grande, two amateur chamber music festivals held each May and August intent on creating an environment open to all levels and ages of musicians. Recently, he founded the organization, Musicians Take a Stand, encouraging musicians to hold concerts for humanitarian causes and raise money through social media platforms.
Cellist LAURA USISKIN bio
Cellist LAURA USISKIN has performed throughout North America and Europe in such venues as the Kennedy Center, Alice Tully Hall, Palazzo Chigi Saracini (Italy), Weill Hall, and Barge Music. With a penchant for music both old and new, she worked as a Baroque cellist and has also premiered dozens of works as well as commissioned works in her name. In 2011, Usiskin founded the Montgomery Music Project, an El Sistema strings program for students in Montgomery, Alabama. The program has given intensive string instruction to hundreds of low-income children across three counties. Usiskin has held orchestral positions with the New Haven Symphony, Jacksonville Symphony, and Orchestra Iowa. In addition to the Bayberry String Quartet, Usiskin is a core member of the Atlanta-based new music group ensemble vim. She has served on the faculty at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, through which she founded the series “Chamber Music @ AEIVA,” as well as Birmingham-Southern College. Usiskin graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in Neuroscience and Behavior from Columbia University, Master of Music from The Juilliard School, and Doctor of Musical Arts from the Yale School of Music, where she was awarded the Aldo Parisot Prize. She currently lives in Atlanta.