The Rolston Sessions

A secret immersion into one of the most prestigious chamber music competitions, the Banff International String Quartet Competition.

Filmed in the beautiful Rolston Recital Hall of the Banff Center, a great Canadian institution dedicated to arts, culture and education, The Rolston Sessions offers to discover the particular world of the string quartets, through the personal history of the young quartets competing for the 2013 Banff International String Quartet Competition in 2013.

Founded in 1983 by Kenneth Murphy to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the Banff Centre, this competition organized every three years has already presented quartets that have since then managed to find a real place on the international musical stage. The St. Lawrence String Quartet (1992), the Amernet Quartet (1995), the Miró Quartet (1998), the Daedalus Quartet (2001), the Jupiter String Quartet (2004), the Tinalley Quartet (2007) and the Cecilia String Quartet (2010) participated to the latest editions.

This documentary offers to go backstage at this prestigious event. It is with great pleasure that we watch full performances of various quartets selected for the edition 2013. Various sensitivities and communions reveal themselves within the ensembles including the American Dover Quartet (winner of the 2013 competition), the Russian Anima Quartet and the German Schumann Quartett. Breathtaking performances and intimate interviews with ten of the best emerging quartets from all over the world.