“I want to promote the serious charm of the string quartet as a fantastic team that reflects the composer’s inner self.”

by times news cr

String Quartet ‘Arete Quartet’
Selected as 2025 Kumho Art Hall Resident Musician
New Year’s concert on the 9th… 4th performance this year

The string quartet Arete Quartet is taking a photo at Kumho Art Hall Yonsei on the 6th. From the left, first violin Jeon Chae-an, cello Park Seong-hyun, viola Jang Yun-seon, and second violinist Park Eun-joong. Provided by Kumho Cultural Foundation

“After standing on stage at the 2020 Kumho Young Chamber Concert, I fearlessly asked the Kumho Cultural Foundation, ‘Can Tim also become a resident musician?’ As time passed, it became like this.” (Seonghyun Park, Arete Quartet cellist)

The string quartet Arete Quartet has been selected as the resident musician at Kumho Art Hall in 2025. Arete Quartet, formed in 2019, won first place and special awards in five categories at the 2021 Prague Spring International Competition. He also won the 2023 Mozart International Competition and the 2024 Lyon International Chamber Music Competition, setting a record of winning three competitions registered with the Federation of International Music Competitions (WFIMC).

The Arete Quartet, which currently includes first violinist Jeon Chae-an (28), second violinist Park Eun-joong (24), violist Jang Yun-seon (30), and cellist Park Seong-hyeon (32), will begin with the Kumho Art Hall New Year’s Concert on the 9th of this month and continue on May 29th. ‘Sense’, ‘Inevitability’ on September 4, ‘Last Words’ on November 13 will perform four performances, including ‘The Word of God’.

At a press conference held at Yonsei Kumho Art Hall in Seodaemun-gu, Seoul on the 6th, Jeon Chae-an opened with an explanation of the team name, saying, “Sometimes there are people who call us ‘Arte Quartet.’”

“Arete is a Greek word meaning ‘the true purpose or most excellent quality in a person or thing.’ “I was more fascinated by the meaning of true purpose rather than the meaning of outstanding talent.”

Although he repeatedly won international competitions, he cited ‘performing opportunities’ as the reason he continued to challenge himself.

“It’s not about the prize money. If you had to pay for a five-figure plane ticket (the cello took up a separate seat on the plane ticket) and the prize money was split between four people, sometimes it was a loss. (Laughs) The performance opportunities given as prizes were precious. “I kept challenging myself because I was given the opportunity to talk with other teams and teachers.”

Among the four, Eunjoong Park joined the Arete Quartet after winning second place at the Isang Yoon International Competition three months ago. Regarding his role in the team, he said, “Chaean is responsible for rehearsals and leads the music. “Seonghyun is in charge of contact and communication as the leader, and older sister Yoon Seon has excellent information and coordinates performance trips,” he joked, adding, “I’m in charge of tuning, so my role is to make the A note before the performance starts (laughter).” . Jeon Chae-an smiled and said, “I came to join Eun-joong after seeing her passion and efforts to permeate the team.”

Haydn’s ‘Seven Words on the Cross for String Quartet’ will be performed at the New Year’s concert held on the 9th. Jeon Chae-an said, “I want to express Haydn’s desire to convey the diverse emotions of humans, who laid the foundation for the string quartet.”

The four people agreed, saying, “We want to spread the charm of string quartet, a serious genre.” Park Seong-hyun said, “Koreans have a lot of team genes, but the interest in the classical music market has been focused only on soloists,” and expressed his determination, “I want to continue as a close-knit team that reflects the inner self of composers.”

Yoo Yun-jong, cultural reporter [email protected]

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