A musical encountering with Abbie de Quant is at all times a unique experience. She has the capacity to transfer many facets of musical emotions. This special form of communication comes forth from her inspiring interpretation and beautiful tone colorings in combination with her perfectionism, virtuosity and spontaneity.
The Daily Telegraph: “Unbelievable virtuosity, perfection and spontaneity, silver embouchure, self-inspired interpretations”
The Jerusalem Post: “Quant's tone contains, so to speak, no air, hence its purity”
While still a music academy student, Abbie de Quant took courses with the renowned Italian flautist and educator, Severino Gazzelloni, receiving the ‘Diploma di Onore’ from the Accademia Chigiana in Siena. She studied with Jan Prins and Koos Verheul and graduated in 1970, ‘summa cum laude’, for her soloist’s degree.
This was followed by many national and international competitions for whichAbbie de Quant won several prizes, among which the Cum Laude Competition, the Belgium-Netherlands Competition, the Royan and Munich Flute Competitions and the Gaudeamus Competition. In 1973, she was awarded the Prix d'Excellence.
Abbie de Quant has performed with nearly all premier orchestras of the Netherlands and with many other European orchestras under the baton of conductors such as Neville Marriner, Luciano Berio, Roberto Benzi, Jean-François Paillard and Raymond Leppard. In addition, she performs in chamber ensembles with pianists Rudolf Jansen, Elizabeth van Malde and Bart Berman, with cellist Jean Decroos and with harpist Masumi Nagasawa.
Abbie de Quant has many appearances in Holland and abroad: in Germany, Britain, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Slovakia, Eire, Switzerland, Israel and lately also in the US, Japan, Indonesia and Singapore. Numerous composers wrote works especially for her, such as Ton de Leeuw, Otto Ketting, Chiel Meijering, Jo van den Booren, Willem Jeths and Caroline Ansink.
With the Erasmus label, Compact Discs have appeared with music by Philippe Gaubert for flute and piano and ‘Oh Lovely Scar’, containing Lucebert’s Dutch-language poems, declaimed by the poet, in a setting for flute and bandoneon composed by Caroline Ansink.
Abbie de Quant made additional albums for EMI, CBS and other labels, with orchestra, with harpist Edward Witsenburg, with pianist Rudolf Jansen and with the Jerusalem String Trio. In 1998, her newest CD appeared at Etcetera, featuring romantic flute music together with accompanist Rudolf Jansen.
In addition to her international artistic career as a flutist, Abbie de Quant teaches at the Amsterdam and Utrecht Academies of Music. Furthermore, she expresses her musical-didactic and pedagogical qualities outside those two institutes as well, giving master-classes, such as recently at the Brussels Conservatoire and at the German-Dutch Orlando Festival.
Her repertoire, being also regularly heard on radio and TV, stretches from Baroque to contemporary music from the US, Europe and Asia. In this respect too,Abbie de Quant is nearly unique.
In this series, Abbie de Quant combines in a playful and associative way the similarities and differences between 20th century flute works. Reference point of the series is France as a source of inspiration for many flute compositions. The French musical esprit has influenced America and Asia. The first concert is devoted entirely to two exponents of French and Asian flute music: Andre Jolivet and lsang Yun.
Their work is imbued with magical-ritual elements and Eastern mysticism. In the French-American program, one can listen to Romantics of an old and a new civilization. The last concert returns to the French-Asian theme and enables the experience of mutual influence by two totally different cultures. Together, the three concerts offer an vast scale of sonority, expressing itself in emotional outbursts and in intimate passages. To sum it up: Les extrêmes se touchent.
Abbie de Quant, flute
Masumi Nagasawa, harp
Joan Berkhemer, violin
Heleen Hulst, violin
Max Roosenstein, alt-violin
Nadia David, violin-cello
works by Jolivet and Yun
Abbie de Quant, flute
Rudolf Jansen, piano
works by Gaubert, H?e,
Barber, Muczynski, Sancan,
Caplet and Liebermann
Abbie de Quant, flute
Elizabeth van Malde, piano
members of Percussion Group
The Hague lead by Micha Hamel
works by Yun, Crumb, Nonla,
Ton That Tiêt and Jolivet
Organization and information: Hans Moens, telephone: 020-684 4322
sponsored by NOG Insurances
The program offered by Abbie de Quant is a "bouquet" of European, American and Asian Music. She will work in close cooperation with concert organizers, before making the final choices of the pieces.
Choice from works by Ansink, C.Ph.E. Bach, Jeths, Jolivet, Karg-Elert, Petrassi, Scherchen and Takemitsu
Choice from works by Ansink, Bloch, Gaubert. Jolivet. Kuhlau, Liebermann. Loevendie, Milhaud, Mower, Piston, Reinecke, Ton-That-Tiêt and Yun
Choice from works by Barber, Caplet, Casadesus, Debussv, Gaubert, H?e, Liebermann, Muczynski, Roussel, Sanean, Schubert and Widor
Duo with Masumi Nagasawa (harp)- in an Asian-Dutch program:
Choice from works by Ansink, De Leeuw, Mivoshi, Straesser, Takemitsu, Ton-That-Tiêt and Yun
- in a mixed program:
Choice from works by Ansink, C.Ph.E. Bach, Bozza, Jolivet, Kuhlau, Saint Saëns, Spohr and Ton-That-Tiêt
Choice from works by Ansink, Bruch, Dussek, Haydn, Hummel, Kuhlau, Martinu, Ravel and Von Weber
"Oh Beminnelijk Litteken" ("Oh, Lovely Scar"), a collage of texts by poet-painter Lucebert, narrated in Dutch by Carel Alphenaar, in a musical setting for flute and bandoneon composed by Caroline Ansink.
Choice from works by C.Ph.E. Bach, J.S. Bach, Bloch, Böhm, Boulez, Debussy,De Kruyf , Dutilleux, Fauré, Gaubert, Haydn, Hummel, Jolivet, F.X. Mozart, Messiaen, Pijper, Poulenc, Prokofiev, Reinecke, Rhené-Baton and Schubert
Abbie de Quant and Bart Berman formed a duo after both won prices at the International Gaudeamus Competition of 1970, combining their talents almost exclusively for international concert tours. Since, De Quant and Berman toured Italy (twice), Germany, Eire and Sweden. At all times, their well-balanced programs reflect the musicians' wide range of musical interests.
Among the many highlights of their tours was their participation in the international Como Music Days and ?stersund Festival, a recording for Radio Eire, and many excellent reviews. In 1978, Bart Berman immigrated to Israel, continuing his solo career and performing in new ensembles such as DuoBeer Sheva, in Israel and in Europe.
Soon, Abbie de Quant and Bart Berman continued their musical cooperation with concerts in Tel Aviv, Beer Sheva, at kibbutzim and at a Bart Berman master-class in Safed. In August 1999, the duo will celebrate almost twenty years of companionship, with a concert series organized by the Israel Liszt Society.
Abbie de Quant also toured Israel (and Holland) with the Jerusalem String Trio. Their joint Mozart disc is popular with the Israeli radio, which have also broadcast the Dutch poetry ‘Oh beminnelijk litteken’ CD. Both with the ‘Jerusalem String Trio’ and with Bart Berman, AbbieDe Quant received great reviews in Israel’s ‘Jerusalem Post’.
Abbie de Quant
Van Eeghenlaan 33 II
1071 EP Amsterdam, NETHERLANDS
Telephone and Fax: +31-20-679 4705
Impresario of the Netherlands
Paulus Potterstraat 12
1071 L7 Amsterdam, NETHERLANDS
Telephone: +31-20-573 3000
Bart Berman
P.O.Box 476
40650 Tel Mond, ISRAEL
Telephone: +972-9-796 7886 or +972-52-928 944,
Fax: +972-6-698 8381
What's new at the Bart Berman website?
| An updated BART BERMAN hompage | ||
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| The popular NOTES ON
FRANZ SCHUBERT page |
An improved and illustrated
DISCOGRAPHY |
A detailed
COMPOSITION PAGE |
| Chamber Music Pages | ||
| Piano Duos | DUO 4
with Meir Wiesel |
Duo Beer Sheva with
SARA FUXON (1932-1992) |
| Flute and Piano | An expanded page on
ABBIE DE QUANT |
A short page on JOHANNES KEMPIN |
| Multi-Discipline Ensembles | BATSHEVA AND SIMCHA GO TO BROADWAY | Music and Dance Ensemble with Sharon Pinsley |
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