Suchoň quintet

Klára KUBRICZKÁ PŘECECHTĚLOVÁ

flute

Mário ŠEBEŇ

oboe

Bibiána BIENIKOVÁ

clarinet

Ida CHOVANOVÁ

bassoon

Nazar SPAS

french horn

THE SUCHOŇ QUINTET takes its name from one of Slovakia’s most important twentieth-century composers, Eugen Suchoň (1908 – 1993), the founder of Slovak National Modernism. It consists of the leading wind players of the Slovak Sinfonietta but was formed even before the orchestra’s existence, in the early 1960s while the musicians were still students at Žilina’s music conservatory. As the oldest chamber ensemble within the Slovak Sinfonietta Žilina the wind quintet has performed many concerts throughout all of Slovakia, as well as abroad, has given concerts for children and young people, at gallery exhibitions, and has been heard throughout the world at radio recordings.
In 1996, the Suchoň Quintet performed in the Austria Center in Vienna for the International Congress of Unisys, at which such world firms as IBM and others took part. In October 1996, the Suchoň Quintet played Divertimento for Wind Quintet by Dr. Ľudovít Rajter, on the occasion of his 90th birthday, in the Fatra House of Art in Žilina. In April 1998, the group performed at the 2nd Festival de Manaus in Brazil. In May 2004 the ensemble took part in the international 49th Košice Music Spring Festival, 2006 and 2007 the ensemble played at the concert tours in French Picardie. The ensemble has cooperated with famous Slovak pianists Ladislav Fančovič and Tomáš Nemec.
For most of its career, the ensemble was known as the Wind Quintet of the Slovak Sinfonietta Žilina. However, in 1998 – which would have marked the composer´s 90th birthday – it was renamed the Suchoň Quintet, an honour bestowed by Marián Suchoň, the composer’s son and director of the Suchoň Foundation. The year 2008 (100th anniversary) was also officially designated by the Slovak Ministry of Culture as the Eugen Suchoň Year. In that year the Suchoň Quintet performed Eugen Suchoň Works in many Slovak towns, in Slovak Philharmonic Concert Hall in Bratislava, in Fatra House of Arts in Žilina, Slovak cultural institute in Budapest, Bekescaba, Maribor etc.
Since 2003 the ensemble has cooperated with a famous young pianist, and laureate of Prague Spring 2004 and European Union Piano Competition Matej Arendárik, with whom Suchoň Quintet recorded a CD for Music Master.

In January and February 2015, the Suchoň Quintet and pianist Michiko Otaki successfully toured the USA, performing a total of 20 concerts in 11 US states in such cultural centres as Jackson, Augusta and Atlanta.