LES ESSENCES

Quart.essence: THE CORE


Quart.essence, the core of the LES ESSENCES is a string quartet that dates back to 2009, their debut concert. The quartet performed at CRR Istanbul, AASSM Izmir, Philharmonie Essen, Mercatorhalle Duisburg, Stadthalle Rheinberg, Forum Leverkusen, Tonhalle Düsseldorf, Konzerthaus Dortmund, and Orchesterzentrum NRW, as well as at the Klasik Keyifler Music Festival in Cappadocia, Focus on Harp Series in Tel Aviv and Musiquem Lleida in Spain. Valuable musical partners alongside LES ESSENCES include Chorwerk Ruhr, Andreas Reiner, Pavel Gililov, Gareth Lubbe, Anja Lechner and Fazil Say. 

THE Team

Önder baloglu

Born in Adana, Turkey, the violinist Önder Baloglu studied with Ferhang Huseynov, Nana Jashvili, Pieter Daniel and Andreas Reiner as well as having had the chance to work closely with renowned musicians such as Vadim Gluzman, Gordan Nikolic, Ivry Gitlis, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Rheinhard Goebel, Enoch zu Guttenberg. From 2013 to 2022 Önder was concertmaster of the Duisburg Philharmonic. Önder performs as a soloist regularly with Turkish and German orchestras. He likes to combine his passion for chamber music and his profession as concertmaster as a musical director from the concertmaster's desk, especially with his chamber orchestra LES ESSENCES.  Önder is a faculty member at the Royal Conservatory of The Netherlands in The Hague and at the Folkwang University of Arts in Essen. He performs on a violin made by Antonio Gragnani from Livorno in 1779.

BIANCA ADAMEK

Bianca Adamek  was born in Moers and studied with Petru Munteanu in Rostock, with Nikolai Mintchev in Essen, with Rainer Küchl in Vienna and with Mark Gothoni in Berlin. During her childhood she won several prizes, followed by numberous performances as a soloist. She has been a member of the orchestral academies of Deutsche Oper Berlin and Deutsche-Symphonie Orchester Berlin. Between 2015-2018 she had a permanent position in the 1st Violin group of Symphoniker Hamburg and in 2018 she joined the Dortmund Philharmonic Orchestra, where she serves as a co-leader since 2020. Bianca is also passionate chamber musician. She received valuable input from Andreas Reiner, Eckard Runge and Mark Gothoni, and with various ensembles and as a founding member of LES ESSENCES and Quart.essence she performed throughout Germany, Europe and Turkey. Bianca performs on a violin by Andrea Castagneri, Paris 1741. 

ODYSSEAS LAVARIS

Odysseas Lavaris, born in Greece, won the Panhellenic School Competition and attended master classes with Zakhar Bron and Sergey Kravchenko as a young violinist. He studied violin with Albrecht Winter and Ingeborg Scheerer in Cologne, viola with Werner Dickel in Cologne, with Gareth Lubbe in Essen and chamber music with the Evenos Quartet in Andreas Reiner's Master's and Konzertexamen class. He received important impulses from the Casals Quartet and Kuss Quartet, Garth Knox, Claudio Bohórquez, Kent Nagano and Enoch zu Guttenberg. As a keen chamber musician and soloist he performed in Spain, Italy, Serbia, Greece, South Africa and Turkey and has been a member of the KlangVerwaltung Orchestra. Since 2019 he is the solo violist of the Bergische Symphoniker and Les Essences, and performs in many different programs and formations, as a soloist and chamber musician.

DIEGO HERNANDEZ

Born in Bilbao into a family of musicians, the cellist Diego Hernandez Suarez studied with Mihai Besedovski and Eliza Pascu in Bilbao, with Joseph Gal and Natalia Shakovskaya in Madrid and with Gustav Rivinius in Saarbrücken. He received chamber music lessons from Tatevik Mokatsian, Eduard Brunner and Andreas Reiner. As a founding member of the "Et Arsis Piano Quartet", to which he belonged for 12 years, he achieved numerous prizes at international competitions.  Tours and concerts followed through Germany, Spain, Austria, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Latvia, France, Italy and Mexico.  From 2012 to 2018 he taught chamber music at the Saar University of Music.  Diego is a member of the KlangVerwaltung Orchestra, solo cellist of the Euphonia Orchestra Munich and a member of the core quartet of LES ESSENCES.

MOMENTS

Here you can watch and listen a variety of repertoire, from Baroque to today‘s music. 

Photos © Anna Tena