The Jenufa Quartet

The Jenufa Quartet, named after the opera ‘Jenufa’ by the Czech composer Leos Janácek, was founded in 1994 and has developed into a solid stringquartet. The Jenufa Quartet at present performs a repertoire ranging from Haydn to contemporary music. In the past the quartet regularly studied in Prague with Milan Skampa as a result of which a special affinity with Czech chambermusic was developed. The Jenufa Quartet likes to play contemporary music of Dutch origin where deepening is found by personal contact with the composer.  

The Jenufa Quartet has attended masterclasses with Dmitri Ferschtman, Jürgen Kussmaul, Sandor Devich and members of the the Párkányi Quartet. The quartet also took part in the International Summer Academy in Lenk, Switzerland, where they studied with the Orpheus Quartet.
 

 


    Naomi Peters  Mintje van Lier  Marjolein Dispa    
Rosalie Seinstra

  In October 2000 the Jenufa Quartet reached the semi-finals of the ‘Premio Vittorio Gui’ international chamber music competition in Florence, Italy. The Jenufa Quartet won the Audience Prize at the National Chamber Music Festival in Almere, The Netherlands, in June 2003.

The Jenufa Quartet has played together with the clarinettist James Campbell, the violist Vladimir Mendelssohn, the pianists Jean Dubé, Rian de Waal and Frank van de Laar, the mezzosoprano Tania Kross and the harpist Lavinia Meijer. The quartet has performed at various festivals, such as the Orlando Festival, Amsterdam’s Grachten Festival, Festival Classique in The Hague, Kamermuziek in het Groen in Eindhoven and the Lindengrachtconcert in Alkmaar. Of their performance at the Festival of Zeeuws-Vlaanderen, one reviewer wrote: ‘They demonstrated musical maturity, technical perfection, and sublime expression’. In 2003 the Jenufa Quartet performed at the Dutch String Quartet Festival in Eindhoven, and a national newspaper, De Telegraaf, commented: ‘The Jenufa Quartet shows much promise’ and ‘Especially with the Jenufa Quartet, the players’ individual personalities were strikingly expressed through the music’.

The Jenufa Quartet was selected for the concert series ‘Het Debuut’ as a result of which the quartet played in the major concert halls throughout the Netherlands in 2004-2005. In 2007 the quartet made a concert tour in France. 

The Jenufa Quartet has played several times in the Muziekcentrum Vredenburg in Utrecht and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. Several concerts have been broadcast on the national radio, some of them live, for instance the Zondagochtendconcert (Sunday morning concert) at the Concertgebouw in February 2009.

The quartet has also performed at various times on Dutch television, such as Vrije Geluiden in 2008.

Naomi Peters plays a 'père' Bernadel built in 1831. Mintje van Lier plays a violin from  Johannes Fransiscus Cuypers (1812), lent by the Nationaal Muziekinstrumenten Fonds. Marjolein Dispa plays a viola of Domenicus Busan from 1780. Rosalie Seinstra plays a cello built around the year 1900 with a bow from  H.R. Pfretschner.