THEY WERE formed in the turbulent years following the collapse of the Ceausescu regime in Romania, and in Ireland they survived the recession, and later, the lockdowns enforced by the Covid-19 pandemic.
They are the ConTempo Quartet, the Galway Ensemble-in-Residence under the umbrella of Galway Music Residency. Throughout the last quarter of a century they have grown to become one of the most admired string quartets at work today, and nothing short of a much loved Galway musical and cultural institution.
Formed in Bucharest in 1995, the quartet - Bogdan Sofei (violin ), Ingrid Nicola (violin ), Andreea Banciu (viola ), Adrian Mantu (cello ) - were to have celebrated their 25th anniversary in 2020, until Covid scuppered such plans.
This your though, they were belatedly able to mark the occasion with the ConTempo25 shows at the Galway International Arts Festival, and they will continue the celebrations this month with the final From Europe With Love concerts and the performance of new music to mark Irish independence, and a planned return to the 3 Kinds of Music shows in December.
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For Adrian Mantu, playing live again is a genuine thrill, and something he is not taking for granted. “After two years of playing online events we were sick of them,” Adrian tells me as we sit in St Nicholas’ Collegiate Church for the interview, where ConTempo had been rehearsing that morning. “Of course, you make the best of it. You adapt, it’s what human beings do, but sometimes you adapt and you don’t like it.
“Performing music is a triad - the performer, the composer, and the audience. I take adrenaline from the audience. Without the audience I don’t see the point, so I’m so glad we’re playing in front of audiences again.
“We all say, ‘Can it get worse?’ Yes, it can be worse, so we need to enjoy the moments we spend together, and we need to take advantage, so each time we have a concert, let’s think that’s the last one, from the audiences and our, point of view, so then we’ll all enjoy and make the best of it.”
‘Not scared of anything’
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The origins of the ConTempo Quartet lie in the immediate post-Communist years of Romania, when the country, after 42 years of one party rule - and particularly the years under Nicolae Ceausescu (1967-89 ) - was trying to plot a new way forward.
“We started playing five years after the fall of Ceausescu,” Adrian recalls. “It’s a known fact that the revolution was made by teenagers. They were crazy enough to believe. In our artistic field we didn’t believe in Communism, we didn’t believe in Ceausescu. Thankfully the revolution came at the right place or ourselves and our parents would have been gaoled for our political views, but you were also mentally prepared to leave the country - my brother left in the eighties - but when the revolution came, I didn’t feel the need as there was much to build up, but then there was the corruption, the secret police were the only ones with money and they bought up the country.
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“Performing classic music from all over the world means you have to travel, and to explore the world to learn those composers. So we eventually left, but we were formed in Romania, we’re from there, we’ve seen everything, we are not scared of anything after the revolution, because in music somebody says ‘Sorry I played the wrong note’, I say, ‘so what? Nobody’s dying! Just go for it.’
“Classical music is so conservative, it could learn from other musics which are much freer. I know it's very rigid and exact music, but we can bring in this freedom in our playing. I think Galway has influenced us a lot in this regard.”
Latin spirit, Galway spirit
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The quartet were studying in Madrid when Mantu spotted the advertisement by the Galway Music Residency seeking an ensemble-in-residence. They arrived in Ireland in 2002 and the following year were appointed to the position - one they have maintained ever since.
“We brought this Latin spirit of adventure and fearlessness with us [Romanian is a romance language and culture as Adrian is always proud and at pains to remind people] when we came to Ireland. We’ve spent 19 years as a quartet in Ireland and only seven in Romania - the Russian school taught us the ability to play everything, but it was when we came to Ireland that we learned not to take ourselves too seriously and go around saying ‘Oh I’m a classical musician’, and this is what I love in Ireland, you go to the pub and you can meet the Taoiseach, the cleaning lady, or a rock star.”
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Indeed, coming into contact with other musicians from different disciplines allowed ConTempo to expand their own artistic horizons.
“Trad is so important here on the west coast,” he says. “We’ve had the chance to work with Máirtín O’Connor, Frankie Gavin, Mary McPartlan, Declan O’Rourke, and sean nós singers and dancers, and here I discovered there is no barrier between genres, that’s a mental thing.
“Having played across the country so many times over the past 20 years, I can say Galway is the most cosmopolitan place in Ireland. Being in the middle of all these amazing people, all these experiences have made us artists. We were brilliant classical musicians, but now we can call ourselves artists, thanks to Galway and this diversity."
“We are a Galwegian string quartet, not a Romanian strong quartet anymore. We are a Galwegian string quartet in spirit and in the way we approach music. Of course our background is Romanian, but all our adult life was spent here, so, ‘Thank you Galway!’”
Of course, the impact goes both ways, as Maeve Bryan, executive director of the Galway Music Residency points out: "I see on a daily basis the impact that ConTempo Quartet has on the people it encounters. The quartet members' talent doesn't lie just in their tremendous performance skills, but also in their generosity of time and energy. Their passion is infectious and we are incredibly lucky to be able to share it with so many throughout Galway city and county."
Pioneers
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On November 27, ConTempo will perform the world premiere of Rhona Clarke's 'Rough Beast', a new work commissioned by the Galway Music Residency and the Galway City Council to mark most of Ireland formally gaining its independence at the end of 1921. For Adrian, and ConTempo, this is special.
“It’s an honour. Say ConTempo to any Irish musician and they connect us with performing Irish contemporary music,” he says. “When we came to Ireland we’d never played a contemporary Irish composer. Now we’ve ended up being the group who’ve performed the most pieces written by Irish composers in the history of Ireland. That’s something unique and that’s to do with Galway.
“In the string quartet field, there were about 100 strong quartets since the 1916 Rising, and they wrote about 350 works, and we have played more than half of them. That helps us feel very connected to Irish culture. We feel in a way, part of the history, and it’s good to be pioneers and to be working with a living composer.”
‘The sky’s the limit’
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When I ask Adrian to name a highlight of their Galway residency, he cites the From Europe With Love concerts, which have seen the quartet perform music from across the 27 EU states.
“There is no other residency in the world which can give this opportunity,” says Adrian. “Residencies focus mainly on concerts or academic fields, but this lets us explore and perform music we’ve never played before from Luxembourg, Malta, Slovakia, Latvia, Holland, countries whose music we didn’t know much about.
“It’s been a journey. Sometimes it’s been music that has hardly ever been performed, but for the From Europe with Love concerts, it’s always been a packed house here in St Nicholas’, and the audience have stayed with us. Some of the works we’ve played have been great, others were just OK, but all of them were interesting, and it shows the audience is not looking for beautiful things, they are open minded, they want to hear interesting things. This is what we’ve had the chance to provide for them through the residency.”
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Looking to the future, Adrian is optimistic and declares “the sky’s the limit” and is keen to take ConTempo and what it does deeper into the towns and villages around the county.
“I’d love to see what we’ve achieved in the city moved to the country,” he says, “especially as there is Coole Music in Gort, the Athenry Music School, and the music scene in Headford, lots of small places where one person makes a difference, like a teacher who has ideas, and it doesn’t matter the structure, it matters to the individual. While there are always constraints with funding, we are still keen to do this. These are very exciting times to be honest.”
