Based in the UK, the Carducci Quartet is recognised as one of today’s most successful string quartets, performing over 90 concerts worldwide each year whilst running their own annual festival in Highnam, Glos and recording label Carducci Classics, as well as holding residencies at Trinity Laban, Cardiff University and Dean Close School, Cheltenham.
Winners of international competitions including the Concert Artists Guild International Competition 2007 and First Prize at Finland’s Kuhmo International Chamber Music Competition, the Anglo-Irish quartet have appeared at a host of prestigious venues worldwide; Carnegie Hall, Washington Library of Congress, The Wigmore Hall, National Concert Hall, Dublin, Tivoli Concert Hall. This season will see the quartet’s debut performance at the John F Kennedy Center, Washington USA. Festival appearances include West Cork Chamber Music festival, Wratislavia Cantans Festival and Cheltenham Music Festival where they held a residency in Summer 2013.
Highly celebrated for their interpretations of contemporary repertoire, the Carducci Quartet is regularly invited to premiere new works and recent highlights include a new String Quartet by John McCabe and Oboe Quintets by Michael Berkeley and Sven-Ingo Koch with Nicholas Daniel. Working with the Palazzetto de Bru Zane, Venice, the quartet are raising awareness of works by lesser known French composers, such as Ermend Bonnal, over the coming seasons.
The quartet has received wide critical acclaim for recordings on their own record label ‘Carducci Classics’. Their catalogue features two world premiere recordings presenting C20th works by G. Whettam (‘recording of the month’ MusicWeb International) and J. Horovitz (‘beautifully crafted works…excellent performances’, BBC Music Magazine) and their latest disc comprises quartets by Mendelssohn and Franck. They have recorded Vivaldi and Piazzolla with the Katona Twins Guitar Duo for Channel Classics as well as a recording of Philip Glass for Naxos.
The Carducci Quartet were nominated for a 2011 Royal Philharmonic Society Award for their family concert ‘Getting the Quartet Bug! Educational work remains important to the quartet and they often work in conjunction with CAVATINA giving school workshops and family concerts. They also set up the Carducci Music Trust to further support their educational work and festival. The quartet also runs chamber music courses for young musicians in the UK, France and Ireland and regularly coach on the National Youth String Quartet Weekend.
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, with Gyorgy Kurtag, Walter Levin and Paul Katz.
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