April is a very stringy month at The Manoel Theatre. Tomorrow evening the Martinu String Quartet will give a concert in the theatre. Then next Saturday evening at the Manoel, there will be an International String Orchestra Festival Gala Concert.

The Martinu String Quartet is one of the best-known purveyors of chamber music in Europe. Formed in 1976 at the Conservatoire in Prague when four music students (Lubomir Havlak - 1st violin, Irena Herajnova - 2nd violin, Jan Jisa - viola and Jikta Vlasankova - violoncello), got together. They have acquired a formidable international reputation in the intervening years.

The Martinu Quartet has given concerts in most European countries and regularly tours the US, Canada and Japan. It has also appeared at many international festivals.

For their concert tomorrow evening the quartet will be joined by virtuoso clarinetist Angus Meyrton, who is a regular collaborator. Mr Meyrton will be the soloist in the Brahms Clarinet Quintet.

Four days later on April 14 The Manoel Theatre will host the International String Orchestra Festival Gala Concert. The Festival String Orchestra will perform works by Mozart, Stravinsky and others.

Then on April 17 at 7.30 p.m., the precociously talented pianist and harpist Caroline Calleja will be the soloist when she plays the Beethoven Piano Concerto Number Four in G major, Op. 58. At the same concert the national orchestra under Mro Michael Laus, will play another Beethoven piece, the overture The Ruins of Athens, Op.113 and Dvorak's Symphony Number eight in G major, Op 88.

We have covered The Manoel's own production of The Magic Flute on page two, but it's worth noting that this will be - to the best of our knowledge - the first time that the theatre's board have targeted an opera production specifically at the younger generation. Let's hope it's not the last.

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