Ensemble Tetrachord

For Lingjia Liang, Alena Wilsdorf, Simo Lu and Franziska Föllmer, music has quite literally become a common language: the four flutists from China and Germany met in 2013 at the Robert Schumann Hochschule Düsseldorf and founded the Ensemble Tetrachord one year later. Since then the flute quartet has engaged in an intercontinental “chamber music dialogue.”

They have now acquired a wide repertoire that ranges from classics of the genre by Friedrich Kuhlau to the impressionistic sounds of Eugène Bozza and contemporary works by Manfred Trojahn and Isang Yun. The musicians regularly receive instruction at the Robert Schumann Hochschule from André Sebald, Evelin Degen, and oboist of the Essen Philharmonic Orchestra and instructor of chamber music for woodwinds, Andreas Gosling. They received further guidance from Michael Faust at the Robert Schumann Hochschule Düsseldorf, Christina Fassbender at the Berlin University of the Arts, and Manfredo Zimmermann at the Cologne University of Music.

In May 2016 the ensemble won a first prize at the university’s Schmolz-Bickenbach Chamber Music Competition. The Advancement Award of the Heimatverein der Düsseldorfer Jonges followed soon afterward in October 2016. In March 2017 the Ensemble Tetrachord embarked on a tour of China with concerts in Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdu, which also included a CD recording. They celebrated their most notable success to date with First Prize at the 17th International Friedrich Kuhlau Flute Competion in Uelzen.

Picture: Jiang Nan