Kamus String Quartet
Terhi Paldanius, violin / Jukka Untamala, violin
Jussi Tuhkanen, viola / Petja Kainulainen, cello
“Kamus is a perfectly blended group, and the brilliance of each individual shines through”
– Helsingin Sanomat 9.10.2014
The Kamus Quartet is one of the most prominent Nordic ensembles and continues to delight audiences with a strong and distinctive voice. In 2017 the quartet launched a new CD and toured internationally to Mexico, UK, Belgium, Sweden and the Netherlands, including their celebrated Concertgebouw debut in Amsterdam. The new CD, which includes the world premiere recording of Esa-Pekka Salonen’s string quartet Homunculus won the EMMA-prize for best classical music recording in Finland 2018. It followed the acclaimed album Different Voices featuring Sibelius’s Voces Intimae, which was awarded the prize for best classical music album of 2016 by the Finnish National Broadcasting Company.
An active force in Finnish musical life, the Kamus quartet has developed new ways of presenting chamber music with its acclaimed concert series TeemaHelsinki, seeking out new urban spaces for classical music highlighting the connection between music and the surrounding space. They have also launched a project to help enrich the musical life of rural parts of Finland and are Artistic Directors of the Meidän Festivaali / Our Festival.
Founded in Helsinki in 2002, the quartet studied at the Sibelius Academy, the European Chamber Music Academy (ECMA) and the Britten Pears Academy in Aldeburgh, UK. This prestigious training, along with support from a number of distinguished artists, has helped the Kamus quartet to find its own personal style and voice. Significant elements of this included the studies at ECMA, which concentrated on musical rhetoric and the performance practice of the classical era, knowledge of musical language and a deep insight into the structure of the score, which opened up new perspectives, and continues to do so. Aldeburgh Music’s Hugh Maguire, a student of George Enescu in the early 20th century, introduced the quartet to the old European string music tradition, and his innate and warm-hearted musicianship left a distinctive imprint on the style of the quartet which can undoubtedly still be heard.
