Listen to the podcast of an interview with David Morriss on RadioNZ featuring Helene, Rolf and Michael: New Ensemble, Familiar Names →

Praised by the San Francisco Chronicle for her “personal directness, warmth and lyricism, combined with a fully formed technique,” Helene Pohl has made New Zealand her home for almost 32 years. Growing up on both sides of the Atlantic, she began learning violin at age 4 with the Suzuki Method. She studied at the Cologne Hochschule, the Eastman School of Music, and Indiana University, where her teacher was the legendary Josef Gingold. From 1988- 93 she was first violinist of the San Francisco-based Fidelio Quartet. That group was a prize-winner at the London International String Quartet competition, held residencies at the Tanglewood and Aspen Festivals and performed widely in the US and Europe. She then spent 30 years as first violinist of the New Zealand String Quartet. She has played many concertos around New Zealand, including the world premiere of Louise Webster’s concerto “In Hollowed Bone I Hear the Seas Roar,” which was written for her. From 2001- 2025 she was Co-Artistic Director of the Adam Chamber Music Festival. With the NZSQ, she founded and taught at 31 Adam Chamber Music Summer Schools. Her violin students from 3 decades of teaching at Victoria University are members of the NZSO, Orchestra Wellington, and the Christchurch Symphony, play chamber music, teach, conduct, compose and add value to New Zealand’s cultural life in myriad ways. Equally committed to nurturing younger students, Helene is Patron of Arohanui Strings+, teaches at youth music camps and workshops, and founded the Queen’s Birthday Chamber Music Weekend (now the Chamber Music Mega Weekend) in 2014. She is a Thomastik-Infeld Artist.

https://helenepohl.com/

Michael has been described by Richard Dyer of the Boston Globe as, “…one of the most interesting pianists recording today ” and by British Gramophone Magazine “…he is an outstanding Schubert Interpreter “. Among his many recordings ( thirty-three in total) he has won the prestigious French award, Diapason D’or, three times and was also awarded the ‘Choc du Musique’ twice, with The New York Times reviewing “performances with pianist Michael Endres were revelatory”. Michael gained a Master’s degree at the Juilliard School in New York under Jacob Lateiner and chamber music under Felix Galimir. He also studied with Peter Feuchtwanger in London. He has won many prizes such as the Concours Geza Anda (Zurich) and first prize at the International Schubert Competition. His solo recordings include sets of the complete sonatas by Mozart, Schubert, Weber and in particular the rarely heard English composer Arnold Bax. As well as all works of Ravel and Gershwin he has recorded the Songs Without Words by Mendelssohn, Barcarolles by Faure, as well as a 3 CD set of works by Robert Schumann. Michael plays at many festivals in Europe, America and Asia including Newport (USA), Beethovenfest Bonn, Salzburg Festival, Shanghai Festival, and has performed at Wigmore Hall, Berlin Philharmonie, Munich Philharmonie, Zurich Tonhalle, Musikverein Vienna, Suntory Hall Tokyo, and La Scala Milan. He accompanied the legendary German baritone Hermann Prey for many years and has performed with the Berlin Philharmonic Soloists as well as with string quartets such as the Artemis and the Fine Arts Quartet. He has had a distinguished teaching career as Professor of Piano in various leading European schools such as the “Hochschule fuer Musik” Cologne, the “Hanns Eisler” Hochschule in Berlin and the “Barrat Due” Institute in Oslo, Norway. Michael currently lives in Canterbury with his wife Susan, a violinist and ceramicist.

​https://michaelendres.com/

Rolf Gjelsten grew up in Victoria, Canada, in a Norwegian family of folk dancers. He became an prize-winning accordionist before focussing on cello studies with James Hunter and Janos Starker. Shortly after winning a silver medal in the Canadian National Music Festival he joined the Symphony Orchestra of Berlin in Germany. Rolf furthered his cello studies with Zara Nelsova and Bernard Greenhouse and chamber music with such eminent groups as the LaSalle, Hungarian, Vermeer, Cleveland and Emerson string quartets as a regular participant in both the Banff School of Fine Arts and the Aspen Music Festival. As a member of the Laurentian Quartet for almost a decade he toured internationally as well as taught cello at Sarah Lawrence College in New York. During this time he was also a member of the New York Piano Trio, and played regularly with organ legend Anthony Newman and the Collegium Musicum of New York. He has given masterclasses all over the world, including Peabody Conservatory, Rice University, Banff School of Fine Arts, and the Stuttgart Hochschule fuer Musik. Rolf has performed with such eminent artists as Menahem Pressler, Anton Kuerti, Piers Lane, Kathryn Stott, Franco Gulli, Zoltan Szekely, Nobuko Imai, Frans Helmerson, Colin Carr, James Campbell, and members of the Hungarian, Tokyo, Vermeer, Prazak, Takacs and Jerusalem String Quartets. In 2015, Rolf premiered and recorded Gareth Farr’s “Dear Horizon” cello concerto with the NZ Army Band. Helene Pohl and Rolf Gjelsten were the cornerstones of the New Zealand String Quartet for 30 years, playing well over 2,000 concerts worldwide, recording dozens of CDs, premiering hundreds of NZ compositions and educating generations of New Zealand musicians. They were both awarded the MNZM honour in 2014 for services to NZ music.

https://www.rolfgjelsten.com/