VERDI QUARTETT

Susanne Rabenschlag (Violin)Matthias Ellinger (Violin)Karin Wolf (Viola)Zoltan Paulich (Violoncello)

The members of the Verdi Quartett put their heart and soul into chamber music: founded in 1985 by Juilliard School laureate Susanne Rabenschlag (violin) and violist Karin Wolf, a pupil of Max Rostal and Bruno Giuranna, recent members are german-french violinist Matthias Ellinger at the 2nd violin, and cellist Zoltan Paulich, a native of Hungary.

Time and again the four members of the Verdi Quartett have successfully communicated their own enthousiasm to their audiences, for instance at the great festivals at Schwetzingen, Ludwigsburg and Zermatt, the Mozart Festival in Lille (France), the Orlando Festival in Kerkrade (Netherlands) and the Bach Festival in Oregon, where they were appointed Quartet in Residence. Their national and international commitments have taken the quartet to virtually all the leading concert venues, not only in Europe but also in the USA, Canada, Africa and South Korea. They have appeared with eminent performers such as Norbert Brainin, Siegmund Nissel and Martin Lovett, Bruno Giuranna, Alfredo Perl, Günter Ludwig, Rudolf Meister and Matthias Kirschnereit.

The «Verdis» have been coached by the Amadeus Quartett, not just in chamber music playing, but also specifically concerning Benjamin Britten’s work, who wrote his third and last string quartet for this legendary ensemble, and with whom he collaborated while preparing the world premiere. Such influence, as well as master classes with the Shostakovich Quartet Moskow and Melos Quartett Stuttgart, helped mark the Verdi Quartett’s style, which is characterized by great tonal beauty as well as a certain austerity. These influences led to a particular affinity to the works of the great hungarian composers Bartók and Kodàly, and to the music of the eminent russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich. All this is in perfect harmony with the four musicians’ fundamental artistic ideas.

Since 2003, the quartet has a festival of its own, the Festival vielsaitig in Füssen, a mixture of concerts, chamber music and solo master classes, as well as a symposium for string instrument making.

The Verdi Quartett’s members are also in great demand as teachers: they work individually and as a group at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Mannheim (where they have been Quartet in Residence since 2004), at the Rostock University of Music and Theatre, and offer master classes and workshops around the world.

For Susanne Rabenschlag, chamber music is the form of expression with the broadest horizon. The wide-ranging repertoire continually provides the first violinist of the Verdi Quartet with new stimuli - like a "colourful and adventurous musical playground" on which even the most familiar music is in a constant state of transformation. She received her professional training with Max Rostal at the Cologne Music Academy and – as a stipend-holder of the German Studies Foundation – with Dorothy DeLay at the Juilliard School of Music in New York. Studies with the Amadeus Quartet as well as master courses with the Melos Quartet and the Shostakovich Quartet in Moscow followed. Susanne Rabenschlag founded the Verdi Quartet with Karin Wolf in 1985; the ensemble has given guest performances at the major festivals of Schwetzingen, Ludwigsburg and Zermatt, the Mozart Festival in Lille (France), the Orlando Festival in Kerkrade (The Netherlands) and the Bach Festival in Oregon, where the ensemble served as quartet-in-residence. The duo that Susanne Rabenschlag has formed with the Egyptian pianist Hatem Nadim has recorded the complete violin sonatas of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart for CAvi. Since 1995, Susanne Rabenschlag has been Professor of Violin and Chamber Music at the State Academy of Music and the Performing Arts in Mannheim. She gives international master courses and workshops and is a jury member at national and international competitions.  

Matthias Ellinger was born in Dôle, France. He studied orchestral and chamber music and received soloistic training from Joshua Epstein at the Saarland Academy of Music and Theatre. There followed master courses with André Gertler and Gerhard Schulz. During his student years, he participated in solo and chamber music recordings of Saarland and Belgian Radio. Alongside this, he performed concerts in Germany, France, Spain, Italy and England and gained a great deal of orchestral experience as well: Ellinger played in the orchestras of Saarland Radio and the SWR, the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, Orchestre National de Lorraine and the Saarland State Orchestra. Since 2008 he has been second violinist with the Verdi Quartet in Cologne, with which he travels throughout practically the entire world and has given a large number of master courses. With his wife, the Japanese pianistin Yuko Ellinger (née Mine) he founded the Duo Lafcadio in 2011, which is especially dedicated to German, French and Japanese chamber music. He has been an instructor at the Schwerin Conservatory since 2012.  

The dark tone of her instrument fascinated Karin Wolf so much from the very beginning that she never played the violin again since changing to the viola for the founding of the Verdi Quartet. This versatile artist is active as a soloist, inspired chamber musician and committed professor. She is a founding member of the internationally renowned Verdi Quartet which, with its festival "vielsaitig" (in German this word means "many-stringed" and sounds the same as the word meaning "many-sided") in Füssen, continually illuminates new aspects of classical music and searches to bridge the gap between classical music and jazz.Karin Wolf studied musicology, philosophy and German literature before beginning her studies at the Music Academy in Cologne. After completing her pedagogical and soloistic training on the violin, she changed to the viola, studying this instrument with Max Rostal in Berne and Bruno Giuranna in Berlin. She received stipends from the Karl Klingler Foundation and from the Foundation of the Province of North Rhine-Westphalia. She performs as a soloist and is a guest at chamber music festivals in Europe, Asia, Africa and the USA, making appearances with Bruno Giuranna, Wolfgang Meyer, the members of the Amadeus Quartet and the Melos Quartet. Karin Wolf is Professor of Viola and Chamber Music at the Academy of Music and Theatre in Rostock and at the Academy of Music and the Performing Arts in Mannheim.   Zoltán Paulich was born in Budapest and attended a special elementary school for music there, where he found his way to the "small violone" early on. From 1979 until 1983 he was a student at the Béla Bartók Conservatory before receiving instruction from Endre Lengyel and György Miklós at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest until 1987. Zoltán Paulich received his training in chamber music through the Tátrai Quartet and the Bartók Quartet (he worked closely with the composer György Kurtág during this period), and finally he enriched his knowledge with Peter Buck and the Melos Quartet at the Music Academy in Stuttgart. As cellist of the Budapest Piano Trio (1987-1997), he was a regular guest at major festivals, including those in Schleswig-Holstein, Lake Constance and at the Budapest Spring Festival. During these years of comprehensive international concert activity, Paulich became solo cellist of the Württemberg State Orchestra in Stuttgart in 1992, and six years later took over the same position in the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra as well. He has formed the foundation of the Verdi Quartet since 2006.