Jaroslaw Bester Quartet

Jaroslaw Bester-accordion; Mark Feldman-violin; Matt Ulery-bass; Quin Kirchner-drums

Part of the Chicago-based Chopin in the City Festival.

media release: Bester Quartet is a phenomenon on the global music market. The group is made up of four superior instrumentalists, classically and jazzally trained musicians. The quartet’s trademark is performance of the music of a vast stylistic range that assimilates some selected elements borrowed from classical, jazz and vanguard music, including the best of achievements of the contemporary chamber music where improvisation constitutes a foundation to build some unique instrumental forms on.

Bester Quartet has made numberless TV and radio recordings and has cooperated with many exceptional jazz, klezmer and vanguard musicians and bands, including John Zorn, Tomasz Stanko, Grazyna Auguscik, John McLean, Don Byron, Marek Mos ( Aukso), Dorota Miskiewicz, Frank London, Jorgos Skolias, Aaron Alexander, Sinfonietta Cracovia, Capella Bydgostiensis, Dafo, Tomasz Zietek and others. The quartet has performed in many prestigious venues around the world, including Poland, USA, UK, Taiwan, Russia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Finland, Serbia, Italy, Estonia, Spain, France, Ukraine, Belorus, Moldavia, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Sweden, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, Holland, Israel, Croatia, Brasil, Turkey, Germany and Canada.

Mark Feldman worked in Chicago from 1973–1980, in Nashville, Tennessee from 1980–1986, in New York City and Western Europe from 1986. He has performed with John Zorn, John Abercrombie, The Masada String Trio, Dave Douglas, Uri Caine, and Billy Hart.

He was a member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and played in many bar bands in Chicago. He played on over 200 recordings in Nashville as a studio musician, was a member of the Nashville Symphony, and was a member of the touring groups of country western entertainers Loretta Lynn and Ray Price.

In 2003, he was soloist with Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra in Guus Janssen's Violin Concerto and with the WDR Jazz Orchestra in Concerto for Violin and Jazz Orchestra by Bill Dobbins. At New York's Lincoln Center he performed in duo with pianists Paul Bley and Muhal Richard Abrams.

He has recorded with Michael Brecker, Lee Konitz, Joe Lovano, and Chris Potter and has played on over 100 recordings in New York City as a soloist in contemporary music and modern jazz.

Feldman has released several albums, including Music for Violin Alone (Tzadik, 1995); Book of Tells (Enja, 2000); What Exit (ECM, 2006 with British pianist John Taylor; To Fly to Steal (Intakt, 2010) with bassist Thomas Morgan and drummer Gerry Hemingway; and Oblivia (Tzadik, 2010) with his wife, Swiss pianist Sylvie Courvoisier.