March 2011 Concert
Friday 11th March 2011 at 7.30pm
Witney Methodist Church
High Street Witney OX28 6HG
Witney Methodist Church location map (opens in new window)
Concerts
CARDUCCI
STRING QUARTET
Matthew Denton - violin
Michelle Fleming - violin
Eoin Schmidt-Martin - viola
Emma Denton - 'cello
HAYDN: String Quartet Op 76 No 4 Sunrise
BARTOK: String Quartet No 2
BEETHOVEN: String Quartet No 6 in B flat major Op 18 No 6
The Carducci Quartet
is recognised as one of today’s most exciting young string quartets. Based
in the UK, the quartet holds residencies at Trinity College of Music in
London, Cardiff University and at the Cork School of Music in Ireland. The
2009-2010 season will see the quartet perform over 90 concerts worldwide,
including performances at London’s Wigmore Hall and Washington’s Library of
Congress. European tours include multiple stops in Spain, Portugal, Denmark,
France and throughout the UK, including their own festival in Highnam. In
2009 the quartet will also embark on debut tours of South America and
Australia as well as engagements in North America including New York,
Philadelphia, Santa Rosa, Los Angeles and Eureka.
Winners of the Concert Artists Guild Competition in New York, the Kuhmo
International Chamber Music Competition and major prizes at the Bordeaux,
London and Osaka competitions, the Anglo-Irish Carducci quartet has
established an enthusiastic international following. The Quartet was
short-listed for the 2008 Royal Philharmonic Society Chamber Music Award and
has recently collaborated with such internationally renowned musicians as
Nicholas Daniel, Julius Drake, Graham Oppenheimer, Charles Owen, Kazuki Sawa,
Julian Bliss, Simon Rowland-Jones, James Gilchrist and Patricia Rosario.
Other highlights include appearances at Carnegie Hall, the Verbier, West
Cork and Wratislavia Cantans Festivals, an Aldeburgh residency, broadcasts
for BBC Radio 3, RTE Lyric FM and BBC television, a cycle of the complete
Bartok quartets and a Naxos recording of the Philip Glass quartets.
They have received wide critical acclaim for recordings on their own record
label 'Carducci Classics', launched with a CD of Haydn String Quartets. Two
world premiere recordings featuring C20th works by G. Whettam ('recording of
the month' MusicWeb International) and J. Horovitz (‘beautifully crafted
works…excellent performances’, BBC Music Magazine) were released in 2008.
The complete quartets by Irish composer Brian Boydell was released this
year, presented with funding from the Music Network/ Arts Council of Ireland
Recording Scheme. The Carduccis have also recorded (Vivaldi and Piazzolla)
with the Katona Twins Guitar Duo for Channel Classics.
The quartet has gained an enviable reputation for their performances of
contemporary works and this season, the quartet will premiere new
commissions from David Matthews, Adrian Williams, Simon Rowland Jones and
Huang Ruo and will perform in the ‘New Music, New Places’ series, New
York.They have also performed to great acclaim the works of Peter
Maxwell-Davies, Anthony Powers, Michael Zev-Gordon and Joe Duddell, amongst
others. The quartet has embraced collaborations with other disciplines,
working alongside the Henri Oguike and Random Dance companies and with the
renowned Sarod player Wajahat Kahn.
The Carducci Quartet’s international engagements have taken them to the USA,
Japan and throughout Europe, including Italy, where after performing
numerous concerts at the Castagnetto-Carducci Festival in 1997 the quartet
adopted the name “Carducci” with the blessing of the Mayor. The quartet
studied with members of the Amadeus, Alban Berg, Chilingirian, Takacs and
Vanbrugh quartets and, as part of the ProQuartet professional training
programme in France, studied with Gyorgy Kurtag, Walter Levin and Paul Katz.
The quartet are passionate about taking classical music to the next
generation and run chamber music courses for young musicians in the UK,
France and Ireland. Their educational work continues with performances for
school children supported by their own charity, The Carducci Music Trust,
and for the Cavatina Chamber Music Trust Education programme and West Cork
Music. They also regularly coach on the National Youth String Quartet
Weekend, run by the London String Quartet Foundation at Chetham’s School of
Music. The Carducci Quartet gratefully acknowledges the support of the Coln
Trust.
'...the Carducci
String Quartet were stunning...they are clearly musicians of high
intelligence.'
THE TIMES
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