"Sweet" is the meaning of the word Amai in Japanese and the very same, pleasant sound corresponds to the Italian verb "I loved".
The Italian poet Umberto Saba uses it to entitle a charming programmatic text, which presents an idea of essential art, carrying the most profound truth in its simplicity.
I loved
I loved the worn words that no one else
dared use. I was enchanted by the rhyme June
moon,
the oldest and most stubborn in the world.
I loved the truth that lies in the depths,
almost a forgotten dream, that pain
rediscovers as a friend. With dread the heart
approaches it and never after lets it go.
I love you who listen to me, and the winning
card left me at the end of my game.
English translation by George Hochfield and Leonard Nathan from "Songbook: The Selected Poems of Umberto Saba"
Amai
Amai trite parole che non uno
osava. M’incantò la rima fiore
amore,
la più antica difficile del mondo.
Amai la verità che giace al fondo,
quasi un sogno obliato, che il dolore
riscopre amica. Con paura il cuore
le si accosta, che più non l’abbandona.
Amo te che mi ascolti e la mia buona
carta lasciata al fine del mio gioco.
Umberto Saba
Biography
Formed at the end of 2020, The Amai Quartet gathers four musicians graduated at the University of Music and performing arts Vienna (MDW): Murasaki Fukuda (Violin), Chiara Siciliano (Violin), Weronika Izert (Viola) and Anna Tonini-Bossi (Violoncello).
Soon after its foundation, the group gets important achievements.
In May 2021 they were selected to take part in the projects of the Yehudi Menhuin-Live Music Now Vienna.
In June 2021 the Quartet was chosen as Finalist of the Pakosky Competition and performed the finale live in Piacenza winning the third prize.
In October 2021 they were awarded the first prize, as well as the audience prize in the First Edition of the "Concorso per Quartetti d’Archi Pietro Marzani" in Rovereto. After this successful result the ensemble was invited by prestigious Italian festivals and concert seasons, such as Settenovecento (Rovereto), Classiche Frome (Lecce), FFF Fortissimissimo Firenze Festival, Musica con Vista - Comitato Amur, Pianodrom (Tirana), Lingotto Musica (Torino), Kultursommer Wien (Vienna).
In march 2021 the Amai Quartet started its studies with Peter Matzka (Wiener Streichsextett, concertmeister of ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna) at the University of Music and performing arts Vienna, and it is now under the wing of Florian Schötz (Goldmund Quartet).
In the academic year 2021/2022 they were also selected for the Stauffer Artist Diploma at the Stauffer Center for Strings, in the class of the Quartetto di Cremona.
The ensemble received inspiring impulses by participating to masterclasses with the musicologist Clive Brown, with Xiang Lu and Danfeng Shen (Simply Quartet) and with Mark Messenger (Royal College of Music). Moreover the Amai Quartet was among the groups chosen for the Chamber Music Course at the festival Zeister Muziekdagen 2022, where they had the chance to work with Alexander Pavlovsky (Jerusalem Quartet), Marcin Sieniawski (Szymanowski Quartet) and Cuarteto Quiroga.
Various collaborations with renowned artists such as the Mezzosoprano Manuela Leonhartsberger (Wiener Volksoper), the clarinettist Gianluigi Caldarola (Opera Royal de Wallonie, Liège) and the composers Michael Publig, Rainer Bischof, Paolo Marzocchi and Aleksandër Peçi enrich the repertoire of the young quartet.
In December 2021 the ensemble was selected to join the network of Le Dimore del Quartetto and in summer 2022 it was quartet in residence at the International Music Academy Orpheus in Vienna.
In January 2023 it has been selected to join the MERITA Platform.