OSVALDO GOLIJOV
Ever Yours
Photo: Eric Cheng
OSVALDO GOLIJOV
Osvaldo Golijov grew up in an Eastern European Jewish household in La Plata, Argentina. Born to a piano teacher mother and physician father, Golijov was raised surrounded by classical chamber music, Jewish liturgical and klezmer music, and the new tango of Astor Piazzolla. His blending of genres and seamless integration of voices speak volumes about his approach and style, a musical language that can only be termed “Golijovian.”
Acclaimed composer Osvaldo Golijov’s anticipated new album traces a throughline in his creative life: friendship, hope, memory, and faith as lived through music.
Exquisitely rendered by Arethusa Quartet, Animato Quartet, Barry Shiffman, and Nicholas Schwartz, the album paints unforgettable images from Golijov’s living, ongoing journey, including a musical letter to late violinist Geoff Nuttall, showing a composer deeply engaged with belief, reflection, and connection. The album reaffirms Golijov’s commitment to chamber music as a space for human connection, where devotion, loss and renewal live on through sound.
SINGLE: “Starbound”
Osvaldo Golijov on “Starbound”, the second movement of Ever Yours
“Geoff was the first person to understand what I was trying to say as a composer. My brother in music and life. I wrote Ever Yours, primarily, as a conversation about music, Haydn, friendship, life, and death, between Geoff and me. Geoff is now gone, and his (and my) beloved St. Lawrence String Quartet, which he co-founded and led for more than 30 years, has disbanded. But the idea of a conversation between friends continues to live in this new version of the work.”
VIDEO: Osvaldo Golijov's "Ever Yours"
performed by Arethusa Quartet, Animato Quartet & Nicholas Schwartz
The title work, Ever Yours (2022, revised 2025), was Golijov’s final composition written for violinist Geoff Nuttall, his longtime collaborator and co-founder of the St. Lawrence String Quartet. The piece draws inspiration from Vincent van Gogh’s letters to his brother Theo—always signed “Ever Yours”—and from Joseph Haydn’s String Quartet in D minor, Op. 76, No. 2 (“Quinten”), Nuttall’s most cherished work. “Starbound,” the second movement of the piece, landed in mid-December as the collection’s first single.
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Daniel Rowland, Violin
Floor Le Coultre, Violin
Dana Zemtsov, Viola
Maja Bogdanovic, Cello
The Arethusa Quartet was founded in 2023 and unifies four exciting, internationally renowned musicians with backgrounds both as soloists and in world-famous chamber groups. Having shared the stage in numerous festivals, the members developed a deep friendship, bonded over their complementary passions and ideals, and decided to create this dynamic and unique group whose mesmerizing intensity derives from always being “in the moment” while playing music.
The Quartet takes its name from the mythical, magical water nymph Arethusa—the beautiful subject of composer Karol Szymanowski’s The Fountain of Arethusa, who is desired by all kinds of gods and demigods. One of these demigods, Alpheus, sees her in the water and tries to catch her. The moment he thinks he has caught her, she turns into the water itself and becomes one with nature. She is unreachable by the hands of the demigod. This vaporous concept of longing can also be applied to art, and to music in particular. It is beautifully unreachable. It is impossible to grasp. And if you think, “Now I have it!” it is already gone.
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Tim Brackman, Violin
Inga Våga Gaustad, Violin
Elisa Karen Tavenier, Viola
Pieter de Koe, Cello
Regarded as the most promising young string quartet in the Netherlands, the Animato Quartet is known for its passionate, spontaneous playing and powerful on-stage presence. Founded in 2013, its programs combine both classical pieces drawn from the string quartet repertoire and contemporary compositions.
In January 2025, Animato won first prize at the international Irene Steels-Wilsing Foundation Competition and was invited to return to the 2026 Heidelberger Frühling Festival. In 2023, the Kersjes Prize—the most important state prize for classical chamber music talent—was awarded to the Quartet. That same year, they collaborated with violist Nils Mönkemeyer in Kammermusikpreis Hasselburg in Germany, where they received first prize and the audience prize. In 2022, at the Ninth International Joseph Joachim Chamber Music Competition in Weimar, the Quartet received the special prize for an exceptionally talented ensemble. They were also invited to participate in the prominent Verbier Festival Academy 2022 and were selected as one of only ten quartets to compete in the prestigious Banff International String Quartet Competition that year. In September 2021, they won both third prize and a special jury prize at Trondheim’s famed International Chamber Music Competition.
Within the Netherlands, Animato has performed at all major venues and at festivals such as the Utrecht International Chamber Music Festival, the Stift Music festival, and the String Quartet Biennale Amsterdam. Internationally they have given concerts at venues including the Philharmonie de Paris, the Philharmonie Luxembourg, the chamber music series of the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, and festivals across Portugal, Germany, Norway, Denmark, Switzerland, and France.
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Violinist and violist Barry Shiffman has a rich and varied career as a performer, recording artist, teacher, and administrator. He made his debut with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra at the age of 15. In 1989, Shiffman co-founded the St. Lawrence String Quartet. During his 17 years with the Quartet, he appeared in over 2,000 concerts in venues around the globe and recorded several critically acclaimed albums under an exclusive contract with EMI Classics.
Since the fall of 2010, Shiffman has been at The Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, as both Associate Dean and Director of Chamber Music at The Glenn Gould School and Director of The Taylor Academy. At The Banff Centre, he is Director of the Banff International String Quartet Competition and Festival. He has also previously served as Director of Music Programs and Artistic Director of Summer Classical Programs at Banff. Since 2017, he has been Artistic Director of Rockport Music, directing the summer chamber music festival and other classical programming at the Shalin Liu Performance Center in Rockport Massachusetts.
Shiffman is the recipient of the Nadia Boulanger Prize for Excellence in the Art of Teaching, awarded by the Longy School of Cambridge, Massachusetts. He has also received an honorary doctorate from the University of Calgary. His formal studies were at the Royal Conservatory in Toronto, University of Toronto, Utrecht Conservatory, Hartt School of Music, Juilliard School, and Yale University.
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Born in Boston, double bassist Nicholas Schwartz began his studies at Boston University. His teachers included Edwin Barker and Matthew McDonald. He has worked regularly as a substitute with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Boston Pops Orchestra. During the 2012–13 season, he took part in the Berlin Philharmonic Herbert von Karajan Academy. Since August 2013, he has been a member of the Netherlands’ Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.
Schwartz has won various prizes, including first prize at the International Society of Bassists and the Stulberg International String Competition. He has spent many summers playing in the Verbier Festival Orchestra and Chamber Orchestra, and also performs with pianist Anna Fedorova as the Oyster Duo.
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MUSIC WITH A MISSION
at Phenotypic Recordings
Proceeds from sales of this recording project will be donated to support Doctors without Borders, who ‘provide independent, impartial medical humanitarian assistance to the people who need it most’.
