Pacific Quintet

Aliya Vodovozova [flute], Fernando Zavala [oboe], Haeree Yoo [French horn], Liana Leßmann [clarinet], Kenichi Furuya [bassoon],

This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before.
–Leonard Bernstein

The Pacific Quintet met in 2017 at the Pacific Music Festival, founded by Leonard Bernstein in Sapporo, Japan. Inspired by the passionate attention to music, the intercultural exchange and the respectful company with each other at the festival, the five musicians decided to carry Bernstein’s spirit to Europe and founded the Pacific Quintet in Berlin. Because its members hail from Honduras, Japan, Ukraine/Turkey, South Korea and Germany, tolerance and inclusion is of utmost importance to the Pacific Quintet. This ensemble strives to use music as a means of communication in order to make the wealth of different cultures, origins and traditions visible to all, amidst a society in which fear of the foreign and blanket condemnation based on stereotypes are gaining more relevance again.

In addition to their dedication to chamber music, the musicians are currently working with orchestras like the WDR-Sinfonieorchester, the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker and the Bremer Philharmoniker.