{"id":123566,"date":"2026-04-21T15:23:39","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T19:23:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=123566"},"modified":"2026-04-21T15:25:36","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T19:25:36","slug":"interview-fiona-robson-quatuor-magenta-talks-2026-canadian-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2026\/04\/21\/interview-fiona-robson-quatuor-magenta-talks-2026-canadian-tour\/","title":{"rendered":"INTERVIEW | Fiona Robson Of Quatuor Magenta Talks About Their 2026 Canadian Tour"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_123568\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-123568\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-123568\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/04\/Copy-of-INTERVIEW-2026-04-21T151401.919.jpg\" alt=\"Quatuor Magenta (L-R): cellist Fiona Robson; violist Claire Pass-Lanneau; second violinist Elena Watson-Perry; first violinist Ida Derbesse (Photo courtesy of Quatuor Magenta)\" width=\"1200\" height=\"628\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/04\/Copy-of-INTERVIEW-2026-04-21T151401.919.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/04\/Copy-of-INTERVIEW-2026-04-21T151401.919-300x157.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/04\/Copy-of-INTERVIEW-2026-04-21T151401.919-1024x536.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/04\/Copy-of-INTERVIEW-2026-04-21T151401.919-768x402.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-123568\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Quatuor Magenta (L-R): cellist Fiona Robson; violist Claire Pass-Lanneau; second violinist Elena Watson-Perry; first violinist Ida Derbesse (Photo courtesy of Quatuor Magenta)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Quatuor Magenta is based on Paris, France, and was formed while the founding members were students at the Conservatoire National Sup\u00e9rieur de Musique de Paris (CNSMDP). The Quatuor is: <strong>Ida Derbesse<\/strong> (violin), <strong>Elena Watson-Perry<\/strong> (violin), <strong>Claire Pass-Lanneau<\/strong> (viola), and <strong>Fiona Robson<\/strong> (cello).<\/p>\n<p>Robson is a native of London, Ontario, where she first studied music, and found her passion for chamber music at the Forest City School for Talent Education. She completed her Bachelor of Music in performance, with a minor in music theory, at the Schulich School of Music at McGill University in Montr\u00e9al. She followed up with a Master\u2019s in cello performance at the Conservatoire National Sup\u00e9rieur de Musique de Paris.<\/p>\n<p>Quatuor Magenta is embarking on a Canadian tour \u2014 their second \u2014 that kicks off April 22 in Kitchener-Waterloo, and takes them to London, Hamilton, Ottawa, Montr\u00e9al, and Cobourg before hitting Toronto on May 3. After that, they\u2019ll head east to Halifax and Fredericton to finish the tour on May 9.<\/p>\n<p>LV caught up with Robson to talk about the tour.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_123569\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-123569\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-123569 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/04\/Magenta-photo-LJF-2-1.jpg\" alt=\"Quatuor Magenta (L-R): first violinist Ida Derbesse; second violinist Elena Watson-Perry; violist Claire Pass-Lanneau; cellist Fiona Robson (Photo courtesy of Quatuor Magenta)\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/04\/Magenta-photo-LJF-2-1.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/04\/Magenta-photo-LJF-2-1-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/04\/Magenta-photo-LJF-2-1-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/04\/Magenta-photo-LJF-2-1-768x432.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-123569\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Quatuor Magenta (L-R): first violinist Ida Derbesse; second violinist Elena Watson-Perry; violist Claire Pass-Lanneau; cellist Fiona Robson (Photo courtesy of Quatuor Magenta)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>Tour Details<\/h2>\n<p>Quatuor Magenta was formally founded in 2021, and their performance calendar quickly filled with engagements across Europe. They were finalists at the International Joseph Haydn Chamber Music Competition in Vienna in 2023, and participated in the Geneva International Music Competition the same year. The Quatuor has studied with the Quatuor \u00c9b\u00e8ne at their quartet academy at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich, with the Quatuor Modigliani in the new \u00c9lite program at the \u00c9cole Normale de Musique de Paris, and with Rainer Schmidt of the Hagen Quartett at the Basel University of Music.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Program<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The program for the tour reflects the multicultural roots of its members, and includes music by Polish, Canadian, German and French composers, with a spotlight on the work of women composers.<\/p>\n<p>The tour program consists of:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Dinuk Wijeratne (b. 1978): Two Pop Songs on Antique Poems (\u2018A letter from the Afterlife\u2019 &amp; \u2018I will not let the go\u2019)<\/li>\n<li>Gra\u017cyna Bacewicz (1909-1969): String Quartet No. 5<\/li>\n<li>Rapha\u00ebl Merlin (b. 1982): La Jeune Fille<\/li>\n<li>Fanny Mendelssohn (1805-1847): String Quartet in E-flat major<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>and also:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Joseph Haydn, String Quartet op.33 no. 2 in E-flat (Kitchener)<\/li>\n<li>Johannes Brahms, Piano Quintet op.34 in F Minor with Maxime Alberto, piano (Toronto)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Tour Dates<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>April 22, 2026: Kitchener-Waterloo, ON, Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Music Society<\/li>\n<li>April 24, 2026: London, ON, Metropolitan United Church<\/li>\n<li>April 26, 2026: Hamilton, ON, HCA Dance Theatre Performing Arts Sunday Series<\/li>\n<li>April 28, 2026: Ottawa, ON, Ottawa Chamberfest<\/li>\n<li>April 29, 2026: Montr\u00e9al, QC, Concerts de la Chapelle Historique du Bon-Pasteur<\/li>\n<li>May 2, 2026: Cobourg, ON, Les AMIS Concerts<\/li>\n<li>May 3, 2026: Toronto, ON, Syrinx Concerts<\/li>\n<li>May 6, 2026: Halifax, NS, The Music Room Chamber Players Series<\/li>\n<li>May 9, 2026: Fredericton, NB, New Brunswick Summer Music Festival<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/UP4D0TtrQpY?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<h2>Fiona Robson: The Interview<\/h2>\n<p>Quatuor Magenta first came together during the COVID pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was just after the first COVID lockdown that it started,\u201d Robson recalls. She and first violinist <strong>Ida Derbesse<\/strong> are founding members. \u201cI think we were all very starved for connections at that time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A string quartet is a close knit group. \u201cIt&#8217;s the most intimate way of playing,\u201d she says. \u201cWe rely on each other. It&#8217;s as integrated as you can get.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The pandemic may have been the catalyst, but the idea of being in a quartet had already been forming for some time. \u201cAll of us, in our own ways, had been dreaming about forming a string quartet,\u201d Fiona says. She says she\u2019d been considering it since her days at McGill University.<\/p>\n<p>For a string player, there are multiple advantages.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere&#8217;s so much amazing repertoire. All the flexibility, but it&#8217;s much more personal,\u201d she says. It\u2019s also a group where everyone plays a part. \u201cIt&#8217;s a little democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>Canadian Tour<\/h3>\n<p>The current tour is their second in Canada. \u201c25% of Quatuor Magenta is Canadian,\u201d she points out.<br \/>\nBack in 2024, Robson says they performed six concerts in Ontario, Quebec, and Nova Scotia. The 2026 tour adds to the agenda.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis time it&#8217;s nine,\u201d she says. \u201cNew Brunswick will the new province on the tour. Which is fun because they&#8217;re also French,\u201d she adds. \u201cOne of my proudest accomplishments is becoming fluent in French.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Planning a tour in Canada brings its own set of challenges. \u201cCanada always has that geographical problem,\u201d she laughs. Still, they\u2019re planning on extending their reach the next time around. \u201cHopefully next time \u2014 it&#8217;s in the works for 2028 \u2014 we&#8217;ll work in the west coast,\u201d Robson says.<\/p>\n<p>The Quatuor did make it to Banff in 2025, where they competed in the prestigious Banff International String Quartet Competition.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat was incredible. It was the quartet&#8217;s second visit to Canada It&#8217;s a really magical place. It&#8217;s so beautiful and the facilities are fantastic. And the competition is the most well organized and kindly competition that we have ever experienced.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The congenial atmosphere included lunching and hiking with other competing musicians. \u201cWe were practising, and there were elk outside the window,\u201d she recalls.<\/p>\n<p>Fiona says the audience members made the trip from both Canada and the US. \u201cThe audience that makes the pilgrimage out to Banff to see the competition is so incredible. It reinforced our wish to continue to meet these Canadian audiences.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>Repertoire<\/h3>\n<p>\u201cThere&#8217;s a few special reasons behind all these different choices,\u201d Fiona says of the music they\u2019ll be playing on the tour.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Rapha\u00ebl Merlin<\/strong>\u2019s La Jeune Fille is a new work. Rapha\u00ebl Merlin is the founding cellist of the Quatuor \u00c9b\u00e8ne, and mentor to the Quatuor.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt&#8217;s our first commission as a string quartet,\u201d she says. Merlin completed it at the end of 2025, and the Quatuor premiered the piece in Paris in January. \u201cRapha\u00ebl is an amazing composer, he&#8217;s also the founding member of the \u00c9b\u00e8ne Quartet. They are some of our most important musical mentors. Rapha\u00ebl was one of our first teachers when we were just a baby quartet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The work is a special commission for Quatuor Magenta. \u201cIt&#8217;s very cool playing music written by a string quartet player,\u201d Robson says. \u201cAnd it&#8217;s a very interesting piece.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It was written in an homage to <strong>Winnaretta Singer<\/strong>, daughter of the founder of the Singer sewing machine empire, who lived in Paris at the turn of the century. Fan of Beethoven, and friend to people like Nadia Boulanger, and Gabriel Faur\u00e9, Winnaretta married a prince and became Princesse Edmond de Polignac. A vocalist herself, she ran a famous musical salon, and commissioned many works, including Ravel\u2019s Pavane for une enfant defunte.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen she died, she left her home, this mansion in Paris, to a foundation,\u201d Fiona says. It\u2019s now the <strong>Singer-Polignac Foundation<\/strong>. \u201cWe entered into a residence in Paris there through Rapha\u00ebl.<br \/>\nHe was inspired by her and the music that she loved.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She notes that La Jeune Fille quotes music from both Beethoven and Faur\u00e9, while also incorporating Merlin\u2019s own jazz-influenced style. The title is a reference to Schubert\u2019s La jeune fille et la mort.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt&#8217;s the maiden without the death,\u201d she says. \u201cUn homage to Singer\u2019s generosity and love of music.\u201d The Quatuor Magenta just finished recording the work.<\/p>\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/bSyyiGRsVhg?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<p><strong>Dinuk Wijeratne<\/strong>\u2019s music is included not only for his Canadian link. \u201cWe really love contemporary music,\u201d Robson says. The program features pieces that reflect the backgrounds of the quartet\u2019s four members, as well as linking to the places they will perform.<\/p>\n<p>Robson met Wijeratne a few years ago. She&#8217;s looking forward to playing his pieces. \u201cIt&#8217;s a lot of fun. In the music, he wrote a little forward, the idea was to use the instrument of the string quartet to find the groove and rhythm.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>By coincidence, Wijeratne\u2019s piece is also melodically inspired by Schubert\u2019s Death and the Maiden. They had already added the piece even before Merlin had written his. \u201cHe really riffs on them as if they were jazz,\u201d she says. \u201cIt ended up being a really perfect combination.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Gra\u017cyna Bacewicz\u2019s piece was added simply out of love. \u201cWe are absolutely in love with it. It&#8217;s not played enough,\u201d Robson says. \u201cShe wrote seven string quartets. It&#8217;s very unique and beautiful, and well constructed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bacewicz, as she points out, was a violinist herself. \u201cIt has a lot of similarities with a lot of music from the 20th century,\u201d she notes, at the same time pointing out its unique colours and rhythms. The Quatuor plans on including more of her string quartets into their repertoire in the future. \u201cWe&#8217;re working on our second and third.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Fiona says it\u2019s about learning the composer\u2019s musical language. \u201cIt really does feel like learning a language. It gets richer and more fun, the more we learn it.\u201d Learning all seven of Bacewicz\u2019s quartets is the end goal. \u201cIt&#8217;s our major project right now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Fanny Mendelssohn<\/strong> is gaining in popularity as a composer, finally receiving her due. \u201cObviously she&#8217;s more over shadowed by her brother Felix,\u201d she says. Fanny was one of the first women composers to be accepted into the classical canon.<\/p>\n<p>For Toronto\u2019s recital, the Quatuor Magenta will also include Brahms\u2019 Piano Quintet, performed with pianist <strong>Maxime Alberto<\/strong>. \u201cWith that, we&#8217;re collaborating with Maxime Alberto, who&#8217;s a French pianist,\u201d she says. The connection comes via concert organizer <strong>Syrinx Concerts<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h3>Performing in Canada<\/h3>\n<p>Comparisons are often made between Canadian and European audiences, but Robson sees both as being quite similar.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think, it&#8217;s pretty similar to what we hope people will get from all of our performances,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p>Quatuor Magenta will preface each piece with a short description that adds context.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn this particular program, I feel really hopeful in the ways that the pieces sort of dialogue with each other,\u201d she says. Each certainly has its own fascinating backstory. Robson feels that it\u2019s a good way to help audiences dive into contemporary works.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cModern pieces [&#8230;] when contextualized and played with a lot of spirit and energy, which is how we plan to play them, I think people will love them,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI&#8217;m just really excited to introduce people to music that they&#8217;ve never heard before.\u201d Each of the new works, she mentions, comes from a composer who is fully cognizant of the history and continuity of work that they draw from.<\/p>\n<p>The quartet are also excited to be performing on a new set of instruments courtesy of French foundation <strong>Musique et Vin au Clos Vougeot<\/strong>. \u201cWe\u2019re excited. We recently got loaned a set of instruments.\u201d They\u2019re made by German luthier <strong>Stefan-Peter Greiner<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey commissioned Greiner to create four instruments to be performed together,\u201d she explains. The wood for all four instruments was taken from only two old trees. She calls it a dream to perform on instruments made from wood that has grown and matured side by side over the decades.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow we&#8217;re making it vibrate with music. It&#8217;s a pretty profound feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Details<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Find tour dates, with ticket links, [<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.quatuormagenta.com\/concerts\/canada-tour-2026\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">HERE<\/a><\/strong>].<\/li>\n<li>Ticket information about their May 3 Toronto concert [<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/syrinxconcerts.ca\/tickets-and-subscriptions\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">HERE<\/a><\/strong>].<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><em>Are you looking to promote an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/advertising\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"color: #0e101a;\"><u>event<\/u><\/span><\/a>? 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