"While thousands of tiny lights transformed the entrance of the Sugden Theatre into something quite magical, four oh-so-special musicians transformed and transfixed the audience inside for 2 hours...The four musicians who charmed and enchanted the crowd call themselves Quartetto Gelato...The popular foursome filled the intimate theater to the rafters with their distinctive blend of instruments - and one voice. The young, Canadian-based foursome is about as multi-talented as they come. And their instruments: Where else would you hear a Belarus-born, world-class accordion player combine with a Irish jig-performing, glorious tenor-voiced violinist; an oboist who is a quick wit and and has mastered the deceptive art of playing without appearing to breathe; and the cellist playing a saw?..The audience, otherwise sedate and well-mannered, rewarded them with cheers, whistles and a much deserved standing ovation." - Peg Goldberg Longstreth, Dec. 15, 2005 "Light programming, like comedy, is serious business. Quartetto Gelato has the stuff. Dry humor and occasional clowning are part of the quartet's arsenal, yet first it meets the requisite virtues of skilled music-making. Its pleasure-giving is consistent." - Los Angeles Times "Charm, musical beauty, subtlety, wit and sophistication combine to make this classical cabaret CD a winner." - Stereo Review "If there were ever a group of musicians that could make anyone feel at home with classical music, Quartetto Gelato is it." - Newsday (NY) "Quartetto Gelato's performances have a warm, endearing vitality...." - The New York Times

QUARTETTO GELATO

Shalom Bard
clarinet

Peter De Sotto
tenor, violin, mandolin

Alexander Sevastian
accordion, piano

Elinor Frey
cello

Quartetto brings its mix to Winspear: Attracts eclectic crowd that transcends classical music

Edmonton Journal

The Quartetto Gelato will play their acclaimed mixture of classical, gypsy, opera, tango and folk music at the Windspear Centre Thursday as part of the ESO's Robbins Lighter Classics series.

The decade-old group attracts an ecclectic crowd for its shows, which transcend the members' roots in classical music.

"We get students, the older classical crowd, couples that sit near the frong holding hands, so for them it's a romantic evening out", says oboe and English horn player Cynthia Steljes. "You're giving people the kind of ambience or atmosphere to their music."

Familiar melodies from such film classics as Amarcord and Il Postino, The Godfather and Life is Beautiful will be performed as part of the Quartetto's Italian Cinema medley, as well as traditional folk songs like O Sole Mio and Tango Del Mare.

Just a spoonful of Gelato helps the classical go down

By Tom Murray

It makes perfect sense that Quartetto Gelato got its start playing in a restaurant.

"We did it for no money - or just for a meal," oboe player Cynthia Steljes recalls over the phone from Scarborough, Ont., where she's resting from a recent illness. Steljes, who'll be temporarily replaced for Quartetto's upcoming tour, still has fond memories of those days. Members had been nursing dissatisfaction at the direction their individual musical careers were heading (the Toronto Symphony, various touring productions such as Miss Saigon), so the nascent quartet was a better way to express their musical personalities. It goes deeper, though. Steljes says that tenor vocalist and violinist/mandolin player Peter DeSotto's most basic musical training came from his father, who played the violin for a living while strolling around restaurants.

To Steljes and the rest of the Quartetto - DeSotto, cellist Elinor Frey and accordionist/pianist Alexander Sevastian - Why not take O Sole Mio out of the restaurant and on to the concert stage? And why not slot it with traditional songs from other countries? That's a great deal of the appeal of the group, which mixes and matches Nino Rota scores (Amarcord, The Godfather) with operatic arias, tangos, folk music and more standard classical fare. Put in that context, an old Sicilian folk melody and a version of Danny Boy rubbing up against Bach or Ravel starts to make a lot of sense - if you throw out your preconceptions and are willing to just have fun with it.

"I think it was the first performance of Beethoven's Concerto for Violin where the violinist entertained in the second half by playing his violin upside down. That's stuff we would never do today - it would be considered ridiculous. But classical music was entertainment, and sometimes we forget that its entertainment. People seem to use it as though its a cheap word."

Quartetto's acknowledgement of this oh-so-important but overlooked fact has gained them an impressive fan base outside of classical music circles. They draw from students, casual listeners, world-music aficionados, the expected classical crowd, and, perhaps most importantly, "couples that sit near the front holding hands"..."You're giving people some kind of ambience or atmosphere to their music".

"When we first started, we would play strictly classical series, and often" Steljes starts to laugh, "often the husbands would come and say, "Oh, my wife normally drags me to these things but I didn't want to leave at any point during your concert."

"It was like it was the biggest compliment they could give."

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August 27,2006

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