The Crimson String Quartet (CSQ) is pleased to announce its return to Southern Saskatchewan for a concert tour August 8-10, 2025, beginning in Gravelbourg at the Renaissance Gaiety Theatre on August 8 at 7:30pm.
In addition to the CSQ’s signature cross-genre programming, inspired by the folk and popular music of Edvard Grieg and the Beatles and traditional fiddle tunes, the Spirit of the Prairies Tour features the world premiere of a newly commissioned work by Gravelbourg-born composer, Nicole Lizée.
“This project is very special to me in that Gravelbourg is my hometown,” Lizée says. The premise of the work will be rurex, or rural exploration, generally described as the exploration of abandoned and severely decomposing rural structures. The piece is inspired by the Gravelbourg Elementary School, which was built in 1916 as a convent but is currently vacant and supposedly haunted. When Lizée attended the school in the late 1970s, the fourth floor was off-limits as it was apparently overrun by ghosts.
Tickets for the Gravelbourg concert are available at Gravelbourg Family Pharmacy, by contacting 306-648-7944, or at the door. The CSQ is grateful for the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and Sask Lotteries.
About the Crimson String Quartet
The Crimson String Quartet was founded in 2010 and has performed over 300 concerts across Canada and while cruising the North Atlantic. They have toured in Saskatchewan annually since 2012.
CSQ members are cellist Alyssa Ramsay (Regina), violinists Audrey Sproule (Lafleche, SK) and Alvin Tran (Vancouver), and violist, Laurence Schaufele (Bow Island, AB).
The musicians hold performance degrees from The Glenn Gould School of Music in Toronto, University of Calgary, Boise State University, Cleveland Institute of Music, Université de Montréal and McGill University, where the quartet was founded.