PSQ CLASSICAL Projects
Kreutzer Sonata ~ PSQ with guest cellist
In 1923 Leos Janacek was 69 years old and composing his first string quartet. At the time he was re-reading Tolstoy’s novella “The Kreutzer Sonata” likely because he was relating to its theme of marital infidelity. The Tolstoy novella tells a story of a husband who suspects his wife (a pianist) of having an affair with a violinist. He witnesses them playing Beethoven’s sonata no. 9 (the “Kreutzer” sonata) together and it drives him wild with jealousy. This concert program presents Janacek’s quartet inspired by this novella as well as Beethoven’s own arrangement of the Kreutzer sonata for string quintet.
PSQ with Stewart Goodyear, piano
Proclaimed "a phenomenon" by the Los Angeles Times and "one of the best pianists of his generation" by the Philadelphia Inquirer, Stewart Goodyear is an accomplished Canadian concert pianist, improviser and composer. Goodyear has recorded all the Beethoven piano sonatas on the Marquis Classics label and made international superstardom by performing all the sonatas from memory in one day at the Luminato Festival in Toronto! The PSQ commissioned Goodyear to compose a piano quintet in homage to Beethoven. This program includes Goodyear’s piano quintet from 2020 along with a string quartet and piano sonata of Beethoven.
Mahler Symphony No.4 (chamber version)
This incredible chamber arrangement from 2007 of Mahler’s Fourth Symphony by Klaus Simon has been performed by the PSQ and Montreal’s enterprising Pentaèdre Wind Quintet both in Montreal at Salle Bourgie and in Waterloo at Forrester Hall.
Beethoven’s Birthday Concert
Our annual Beethoven’s Birthday Concert for the Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Music Society has seen us perform all the Beethoven string quartets, viola quintet, and the septet over the years. This concert is always sold out and a great December 16th holiday tradition!
PSQ Jazz/Crossover Projects
PSQ with Jessica Lalonde & Adrean Farrugia Trio
Revel in the many vocal shades of Jessica Lalonde, named “One of Canada’s top women in Jazz” by JAZZ.FM91. Trained in jazz and classical, Lalonde channels music through an unaffected purity of tone that is both grounded and boundless. Matched with the compositional prowess of pianist Adrean Farrugia (a multiple JUNO nominee and winner), this concert blends classical works and original integrated jazz arrangements for Lalonde, string quartet and jazz trio.
Another Time, Another Place
Don Thompson, piano; Reg Schwager, guitar & PSQ
Living in San Francisco at the start of his career, Don Thompson played in the John Handy Quintet, one of the leading jazz groups in the 1960’s. It was another time, another place and here Don was exposed to experiments in jazz that ranged from group improvisation to through-composed composition. Encountering the music of Krzysztof Penderecki in the spring of ‘66, Don began thinking of how his own jazz could incorporate the concepts of composed improvisation and making his jazz solos sound like spontaneous composition. This program of original jazz works composed by Don Thompson integrates the players through sweet strains of bebop, Brazilian samba, and tunes of Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, and Cole Porter.
Red Dragonfly ~ PSQ with Jane Bunnett and jazz trio
Jane Bunnett’s Red Dragonfly features startlingly fresh jazz revisions of songs from various world traditions. Each tune here was chosen not for its ability to be re-created in the jazz idiom, but simply for its subjective meaning to Bunnett. These tunes retain their melodies and their heart, but they also become something more in this rich, sonorous atmosphere with lush, adventurous harmonies and deep, focused lyricism and rhythmic invention. The title tune is derived from Kosaku Yamada‘s 1921 standard with its haunting string and piano intro. When Bunnett enters with the melody, she strikes the balance between East and West. The band redoes “Divule Oni” from Spirits of Havana with a radically different arrangement, one that showcases the melody over the rhythm and allows the strings to paint the gap. The South African folk song “Nkosi Sikelel’i Africa,” with its dirgelike cadence and the strings playing an extrapolated harmony in unison with Bunnett’s soprano, is just plain beautiful. But the finest selection is her gorgeous and deeply moving version of the late Jim Pepper‘s “Witchi-Tai-To” (derived from a Native American peyote chant).
PSQ with Caity Gyorgy and Mark Limacher
This program features three-time JUNO award winning jazz singer Caity Gyorgy. Caity’s vocal style is graced with delicious inflections and the sweetest vibrato charms. She delivers all with a wink and wit to boot - you will be smiling instantly! Her long-standing music partner is the pianist/arranger Mark Limacher and together they have arranged several snazzy 1950s bebop and swing numbers with lush string accompaniment provided by the Penderecki String Quartet and Joe Phillips on bass. Mark also has a few wildly clever jazz-expansions on the string quartet melodies of Tchaikovsky and Borodin ready to go.
PSQ with Autorickshaw
Autorickshaw meets the Penderecki String Quartet in an east-west musical masala that explores the exotic melodies and rhythms of India united with the endless possibilities of western harmony. The program features a kaleidoscope of styles and genres from ancient to modern, from Indian classical to vintage Bollywood, from jazz to folk to Indo-inspired originals, bringing together centuries of classical music traditions from both eastern and western perspectives.
PSQ 40th Anniversary Commissions
Jeff Ryan
New work for string quartet and soprano (2026)
Based on texts by Montreal poet Yusuf Saadi, this new work draws from Saadi’s lunar inspired imagery creating a cycle of five songs connected by string quartet instrumental interludes representing different phases of the moon. The work will be premiered in March 2026 with soprano Leslie Fagan (Order of Canada) on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Faculty of Music at Wilfrid Laurier University.
Nicole Lizée and Shad the rapper
New work for string quartet and rapper (2026)
Co-created by Lizée and Shad, this new 18-minute piece is inspired by Kate Bush’s song “Cloudbusting” from her 1985 album, Hounds of Love. This track resonates strongly with its inventive instrumentation, orchestration, use of technology, unconventional song structure, and evocative lyrics that allude to themes of belief, trust, panic, energy, terror, worlds falling apart, and worlds building - themes of extremes that remain particularly poignant today. Without sampling or quoting the song, the piece will reference, deconstruct, and reinterpret some of its components using string quartet, rap, electronics and bespoke electronics and devices.
Matthew Emory
“Where Light Lingers Longest” for string quartet (2025)
This work engages with space and place; with how we are shaped, and shape our built environment. This work takes its inspiration from site specific elements and then asks us to shift our gaze as we look elsewhere with new perspectives – particularly the composers experience visiting the Shanghai Tower. It is currently the 3rd tallest tower in the world. This quartet is a musical depiction of the building’s layout, and captures the emotions of rising from the ground floor on the worlds fastest elevator, to be carried to the top of the tower looking back down on the city, looking down into clouds, and into sunlight lingering amongst steel.