The Isabel Quartet is presenting one concert during the 2024/25 academic year at the Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts on Monday, Feb. 24, 2025, at 7:30 PM. This concert features DAN School professor of flute, Sarah Moon performing the Amy Beach, Theme and Variations, for flute and string quartet. The concert also includes the premiere performance of a new quartet written specifically for the Isabel Quartet by Canadian composer, Bruce Russell, who will be in attendance at the concert. Schubert’s Death and the Maiden Quartet, concludes this concert.
Ticket prices range from $15-$25 using the link below. Please note that beginning one week before this concert, all students in the Kingston area can obtain up to two FREE tickets to the concert from the online Isabel Bader Box Office, also using the link below and the discount code: STUDENTFREE
| Meet the Isabel Quartet members as they discuss the important C-words in quartet playing. | The Quartet’s premiere performance of Shiraz, for santur and string quartet, presented at the Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts in April 2023 with virtuoso santur performer, Sadaf Amini. Composed by DAN School faculty member, John Burge, the work was written specifically for the Isabel Quartet and Sadaf. |
About the Isabel Quartet
The DAN School of Drama and Music established our own string quartet back in 2016 following the opening of the Isabel Bader Performing Arts Centre in 2014. With The Isabel, Kingston and Queen’s gained a world-class concert hall that is an acoustical gem and one of the very best ways to experience the awesome potential of this hall is through the performance of a string quartet. The Isabel Quartet presented its inaugural concert in June 2016 and then opened the DAN School of Drama and Music’s Faculty Artist Series with a concert in October of the same year. Since its founding, the quartet has been involved in promoting the DAN School and in recruiting string students to our program.
For many years, the Isabel Quartet has presented a series of three concerts at Queen’s, each of which has included a quintet performance with visiting artists, such as pianist Frédéric Lacroix (University of Ottawa), double bassist Joel Quarrington (National Arts Centre Orchestra), and cellist Joseph Johnson (Toronto Symphony Orchestra). The quartet also places great importance on performing Canadian composers and, to date, has programmed quartets by John Burge, Dean Burry, Clifford Crawley, Marjan Mozetich, Michel Szczesniak and Bruce Russell.
Quartet Members
Katya Poplyansky, 1st Violin
Canadian violinist Katya Poplyansky is a prize-winner at numerous competitions including the Isabel Bader, Tunbridge Wells and Eckhardt-Gramatté competitions, where she was awarded the prize for the best performance of the commissioned work, Carmen Braden’s Foxy Fox’s Musical Games. An accomplished chamber musician, she has been invited to participate in North American and European festivals, including the Toronto Summer Music Festival, IMS Prussia Cove (UK), Festival Jong Talent Schiermonnikoog (Netherlands), Hvide Sande Masterclass (Denmark), and the Smithsonian Haydn Quartet Academy (USA). Back in Toronto she has also collaborated with Amici Chamber Ensemble and the ARC Ensemble. In 2022, she was appointed Concertmaster of the Kingston Symphony Orchestra. Katya is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, the Guildhall School and the Royal Conservatory’s Glenn Gould School, where she was also a Rebanks Fellow.
Julia McFarlane, 2nd Violin
Equally at home as a performer and educator, Julia McFarlane has held the position of principal second violinist of the Kingston Symphony since 2014 and is on faculty at the Canta Arya School for Strings and the National Music Camp. Julia began to study violin at age five and went on to earn performance degrees from McGill University and the Peabody Institute of Music in Baltimore. Before moving back to her hometown of Kingston, Julia was the principal second violinist of the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra and co-director of the baroque chamber orchestra Prairie Virtuosi. Julia was concertmaster of the NYCO Symphony Orchestra for ten years and has been a guest clinician and adjudicator at workshops and festivals across Canada.
Caitlin Boyle, Viola
A JUNO-nominated performing artist, Caitlin Boyle concertized extensively for thirteen years with the Cecilia String Quartet. She won several international awards, including Banff, Bordeaux, and Osaka String Quartet Competitions. The quartet was the John D. Stewart String Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Toronto from 2015-2018, where they coordinated the chamber music program as well as holding positions as Adjunct Professors. Ms. Boyle received her doctorate from the University of Toronto in 2015, where she researched nonverbal communication in chamber music for her thesis. Currently a member of Sinfonia Toronto and the Niagara Symphony Orchestra, she has also performed and toured with orchestras such as the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Munich Symphony Orchestra, and the Schleswig-Holstein Orchestral Academy.
Wolf Tormann, Cello
Wolf Tormann studied with Janos Starker and Arto Noras. Before moving to Canada, he held orchestral positions with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, Opera Halle, and the Metropolitan Orchestra in Lisbon. He has performed solo recitals in Germany, Switzerland, Finland, Portugal, the United States, and Canada. The Hamilton Spectator described him as a ‘musician of high artistry.’ Wolf frequently plays in the cello section of the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, and he is the principal cellist of the Kingston Symphony Orchestra. Wolf teaches cello and chamber music at the DAN School of Drama and Music and at Queen’s Community Music.
DONATE TO THE
Isabel Quartet Fund
This fund supports operations and promotional activities for the Isabel String Quartet concert program, including but not limited to marketing and promotions, event presentation, salaries, travel expenses, program support, and equipment.
Donations are processed via Give to Queen's.