Quintessenz – Leipziger Querflötenensemble

Quintessenz - Leipziger Querflötenensemble
Background information
Origin Leipzig, Germany
Genres Classical, Jazz
Years active 1996-
Labels MDG, Genuin
Website www.quintessenz-leipzig.de
Members Anna Garzuly
Gudrun Hinze
Ute Günther
Bettine Keyßer
Christian Sprenger
Past members Britta Croissant

Quintessenz – Leipziger Querflötenensemble is a flute quintet from Leipzig, Germany. Its members are five musicians of the “Gewandhausorchester Leipzig”, the MDR Symphony Orchestra, and the “Staatskapelle Halle”. The group play music from every musical epoch and nearly every style.

History

„Quintessenz – Leipziger Querflötenensemble“, was founded in 1996. The British a cappella-band „King’s Singers“, and the „Bamboozles“, a flute quintet of five students of Trevor Wye, served as examples. The idea of an ensemble that consisted of musicians who played the same instruments in different voices excited the five flutists from Leipzig.

At first “Quintessenz” met in private to play Jazz. As they all are trained as classical and not as jazz flutists they soon developed a characteristic sound. From the beginning everything they played had their classical education as basis.

Out of lack of literature for flute quintets “Quintessenz” began to arrange their own musical pieces. For that they did not only use music for quintets of different kinds but also adapted symphonic pieces, piano literature, or completely different music. Thus they began to compile their own programmes.

In 1999 “Quintessenz” recorded their first CD, followed by three more. 2006 “Quintessenz” were invited by Trevor Wye to the flute festival of the British Flute Society in Manchester. Since then they performed at various international festivals, inter alia in New York City in August 2009, hosted by the National Flute Association of the United States.

A few years ago “Quintessenz” started to focus on the support of young flutists. In cooperation with the regional music council (“Landesmusikrat”) and the “Jeunesses Musicales Germany” they hosted several workshops for flute chamber-music.

Programmes

Because of their very own style of music the “Quintessenz” programmes also have a special character. There is always a main topic or theme the music can be subordinated to. This theme can either be music or composer related (“Mozartimento”), but also country (“America!”) or literature related (“Tour de France”). In addition to that “Quintessenz” have several special programmes that combine music and poetry (“Hymn to fish”, “All those birds”). For those they are assisted by professional stage actors who recite poems to the respective topic.

A special form of these programmes is the “musical promenade”. The audience is invited to walk through the landscape together with “Quintessenz” playing music at different places. Additional programmes are for example “A Midsummer Night's Dream” – the programme for the Mendelssohn year 2009. Parts of the music of the “Midsummer Night's Dream” are the frame, replenished with pieces about summer, night, and elves.

Members

Anna Garzuly

Anna Garzuly was born in Szombathely, Hungary. She studied in Budapest, Munich, and New York. Her teachers included Paul Meisen and Jeanne Baxtresser. Mrs Garzuly has been the Associate Principal Flute of the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig since 1995. She has won numerous prizes at international competitions such as those in Scheveningen, Kobe, Budapest and Geneva. Anna Garzuly is much in demand as a soloist, teacher and as a competition judge. Anna is the principal flute of the Quintessenz ensemble.

Gudrun Hinze

Gudrun Hinze was born in Homburg, Saarland. She studied in Düsseldorf and Essen.[1] She was awarded at several national an international competitions After working in the Cologne and the Leipzig radio orchestras, she has been principal piccolo player of the Gewandhausorchester since 1993. She has been elected as a member of the Festival orchestra Bayreuth since 1999.[2] She is teaching the piccolo flute on the faculty of the Hochschule für Musik in Hannover, working together with Prof. Andrea Lieberknecht. For Quintessenz, Gudrun plays the piccolo flute and keeps arranging the music for the ensemble.

Ute Günther

Ute Günther was born in Dresden. She studied at the Dresden Hochschule für Musik where she was a student of Siegfried Teubel and Prof. Eckart Haupt. Mrs Günther has been commended with many awards at national and international competitions. Her first career position was as principal flute with the Radiophilharmonie Leipzig, today she is assistant principal flutist of the MDR-Sinfonieorchester. She also studied baroque flute from 1999-2002 in Leipzig with Benedek Csalog and has performed with various ensembles specialising in period performance practice.

Bettine Keyßer

Born in Potsdam, Bettine Keyßer studied flute with Prof. Dietrich Hoenow in Berlin, with Eric Kirchoff as well as in Birmingham, Alabama as the student of Dr Sheryl Cohen. Mrs Keyßer was principal piccolo player of the Norddeutsche Philharmonie Rostock before becoming assistant principal flute of the Staatskapelle Halle starting in 1999. Today, she is performing the alto flute with Quintessenz…

Christian Sprenger

Christian Sprenger is a native of Berlin. After completing his studies with Prof. Werner Tast in 1989 his career began with the Leipzig Gewandhausorchester as assistant principal flutist. In 1995 he became principal flutist of the MDR-Sinfonieorchester. Christian has also won several prizes in various competitions. He pursues an active career as soloist and chamber ensemble player with concert tours in the USA, Turkey, Italy, and England. As for Quintessenz, he is the bass player - and the head of the ensemble!

Discography

Notes

  1. ↑ "Gudrun Hinze's biography". ScoreVivo. January 10, 2015.
  2. ↑ "Gudrun Hinze's biography". ScoreVivo. January 10, 2015.
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