Blue Engine String Quartet

The Blue Engine String Quartet was formed in 1997 as the core ensemble of the Nova Scotia chamber music series, Blue Engine Music, a registered not-for-profit society.  The quartet players are also members of Symphony Nova Scotia. From classical roots, the Quartet has expanded its horizons to perform innovative works that draw a wide-ranging audience to some of the East Coast’s most interesting chamber music programs. The Quartet and its guest artists has delighted Halifax with the music of such diverse musical minds as Shostakovich, Brahms, Copland, Steve Tittle, Arvo Pärt, Kurt Weill, Queen, the Turtles, Elvis Costello, Steve Reich, R. Murray Schafer, Christos Hatzis, P.D.Q. Bach, and Leonard Cohen. Guest artists have included percussionist D'Arcy P. Gray, violinist/singer Chris Church, internationally acclaimed vocalist Jeri Brown, concert pianists Peter Allen and Walter Delahunt-Haley, the Saint John String Quartet, actor/writer Peter Duschenes, and singer/actor Cliff LeJeune.   In their 1998/99 season, the Quartet performed a highly successful concert of string quartets by women composers (Fanny Mendelssohn, Elizabeth Raum, and Lucie Vellère, among others) in recognition of International Women's Day.  They have also honored composers from the Holocaust in a moving concert entitled “Thwarted Voices” at Halifax’s Pier 21. 

Consistently recognized both as musical innovators and as impeccable musicians, the Quartet has been awarded artistic grants from both the Canada Council for the Arts and the Nova Scotia Arts Council. The Blue Engine String Quartet is frequently broadcast on CBC Radio and has also been featured on CBC Television.  Some broadcasts include Mendelssohn's Octet with the Saint John String Quartet of New Brunswick, with whom they toured the Maritimes in 2000.  This concert programme was recorded for CBC Radio's "All the Best."  In August of the same year, they played with clarinetist Margaret Isaacs and soprano Sung Ha Shin-Bouey at the Indian River Music Festival on PEI, also recorded by CBC Radio.  They were also featured in a BBC Television documentary about the music of renowned actor and musician, Dudley Moore.

Equally at home on stage at the East Coast Music Awards (where they performed at the PEI event), the Quartet with guest artists Cliff LeJeune and Christopher Palmer created a popular concert of the music of Leonard Cohen at the Indian River Festival. They’ve also performed Christos Hatzis's "Nunavut" at the Scotia Festival of Music's 1998 season and recorded this work in for CBC Radio.

The Blue Engine String Quartet has been the resident string quartet at the Maritime Conservatory of Performing Arts in Halifax as well as at Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia. They are Artists in Residence for the 2003-04 St. Cecilia Concert Series, performing and talking about their music-making with Halifax audiences.

Highlights of the 2002-03 season included a performance of The Juliet Letters by Elvis Costello with Cliff LeJeune on the St. Cecilia Series, and performances and recordings at the University of New Brunswick’s concert series with pianist Peter Allen. The Quartet appeared as soloists on International Women’s Day (IWD) in a sold-out celebration of Nova Scotia women artists hosted by the Aeolian Singers at Pier 21 in the presence of the Governor General of Canada, Adrienne Clarkson, and the Right Honourable Chief Justice Beverly McLachlan, and will be included on the choir’s upcoming cd, “A Woman’s Voice”. On IWD 2002, they performed for Her Honour, Lieutenant Governor Myra Freeman, at Government House in Halifax, for a gala celebration of the 25^th anniversary of the Nova Scotia Advisory Council on the Status of Women. 

During 2003-04, The Blue Engine String Quartet were featured soloists on the Mahone Bay Concert Series, and have just finished recording their Leonard Cohen show with Cliff LeJeune, for release next year. This show was presented to great acclaim in Ottawa on the National Arts Centre’s “Atlantic Scene Festival” this past May.  In addition, the Quartet has recently completed a Christmas television special for Vision TV, produced by New Scotland Pictures Inc. and titled Quartet Plus Four For Christmas (with guest singers Jeri Brown, Lina Boudreau, Cindy Church and Mary Jane Lamond).  The program will air in December.

The Quartet performed the historic “Lost Composers” concert in November 2003 (“Kristallnacht”) at Pier 21 in Halifax, again featuring composers whose music was suppressed during the Nazi regime, where premiered performances of Paul Kletzki’s String Quartet in a minor, opus 1 and Reinhard Oppel’s String Quartet #2 in d minor in the presence of the composer’s son. This performance was broadcast by CBC Radio.

“…a deep commitment to their music” (The Coast, February 2003)

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