Meet the Fab 4 of RARO and Celebrate Romania's National Day at the RCI!

In anticipation of their long-awaited concert at the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, exceptional award-winning Ensemble Raro will make a special appearance at the Romanian Cultural Institute in a celebratory event featuring music and culinary delights, dedicated to the National Day of Romania!

Ensemble Raro are: Alexander Sitkovetsky – violin, Razvan Popovici – viola, Bernhard Naoki Hedenborg – cello, Diana Ketler – piano. 

Ensemble Raro was formed in 2004 by four extraordinary young musicians: pianist Diana Ketler, violinist Alexander Sitkovetsky, violist Razvan Popovici and cellist Bernhard Naoki Hedenborg. Their goal was to create unforgettable musical moments and to combine innovative approach with rich European tradition of intimate and sincere chamber music making. In  the meanwhile the Ensemble Raro welcomed new members: violinists Alina Pogostkina and Erik Schumann, cellists Jan-Erik Gustafsson and Justus Grimm, clarinetist Thorsten Johanns and hornist Olivier Darbellay.

Ensemble Raro is the ensemble en residence at the Chiemgauer Musikfrühling Festival in Germany, SoNoRo Festival in Bucharest and Arezzo, Kobe International Music Festival and Pèlèrinages in München. Ensemble Raro’s  partners in various chamber music formations included Radovan Vlatkovic, Juliane Banse, Daishin Kashimoto, Konstantin Lifschitz, Frans Helmerson, Mihaela Martin, Baiba Skride, Boris Brovtsyn, Marlis Petersen, Mark Padmore, Benjamin Schmid, Philippe Graffin and Gilles Apap. The Ensemble recently performed at the Rheingau Musikfestival, Lucerne Festival, Wiener Festwochen, in Boswil Summer Festival and Geneva Amadeus Festival in Switzerland, St.Gallen Festival and Gmunden Festspiele in Austria, Riga Chamber Music Festival in Latvia, in Schloss Elmau and Kulturwald Festival in Germany, Spoleto Festival and Cantiere di Montepulciano in Italy and in Music at Plush Festival/UK. 

Since 2006 the Ensemble Raro tours every year Japan. The Ensemble Raro gave debut recitals at the Konzerthaus and Musikverein in Vienna, the Suntory Hall and Musashino Hall in Tokyo, the Carnegie Hall in New York and the Wigmore Hall in London. Ensemble Raro is actively involved in performing contemporary chamber music repertoire. They gave a British and German premieres of Peteris Vasks’s Piano Quartet. Their performances of Walter Braunfels’ and George Enescu’s works in Pèlèrinages series in Munich received a high critical acclaim. Composers like Dan Dediu and Santa Ratniece have composed new works to the Ensemble Raro. Besides regular collaboration with the Bavarian Radio, Ensemble Raro’s performances have been broadcast on BBC Radio 3/UK, NHK/Japan, SWR/D, TVR, RRC and RRM/RO, DRS2/CH, LVR/LV and RFI/F.

Lately, Ensemble Raro released six CDs. The first CD "Songs and Dances of Life" was described by Radio France International as “an exceptional project”. About "Canti drammatici" featuring piano quartets of Brahms and Vasks, the renowned Gramophone Magazine wrote: “Ensemble Raro bring a feisty application, impeccable polish and lively imagination to Brahms's stormy C minor Piano Quartet...”  "The Seasons" was released in 2008 in cooperation with SoNoRo Festival featuring Antonio Vivaldi and Astor Piazzolla. In 2013 and 2015 another two CDs were released with chamber music by Ernst von Dohnányi, Josef Suk, Leos Janacék and Antonín Dvořák. "Being EaRNeaST" was released in 2016 to great acclaim. The newest CD of the Ensemble, "Rhapsodie Roumaine", successfully launched in January 2018 would take Raro in an extended European Tour including Residenz in Munich, Concertgebow in Amsterdam as well as Izmir, Arezzo, Paris, The Hague and Bucharest.

Ensemble Raro regularly gives masterclasses in Romania, Italy, Ukraine and Japan, and developed Sonoro-Interferences, an extended educational project dedicated to the most talented young Romanian musicians, also extended in Italy, Ukraine and Germany. 

Currently on view at RCI's Brâncuși Gallery: "The Forest" by Dumitru Gorzo.

Important event info

Please be advised that all guests will need to be fully vaccinated to enter the premises, meaning that the event must take place at least 14 days after your final vaccine dose. Guests will have to provide proof of full vaccination along with an appropriate ID matching the name on their documentation. You can display proof of vaccination on your smartphone, present a physical copy or use the New York State Excelsior Pass. 

Please check out the current sanitary protocols on the NYC Health official website here. For more information, visit https://www.cdc.gov/.