Carducci String Quartet

The Carducci Quartet is recognised as one of today’s most exciting young string quartets. Based in the UK, the quartet holds residencies at Cardiff University and Dean Close School and is visiting quartet in residence at Trinity College of Music in London, Repton School and the Cork School of Music in Ireland. This season will see the quartet perform over 90 concerts worldwide, including performances at London’s Wigmore Hall and for the Dubai Concerts Committee. European tours include multiple stops in Spain, Portugal, Denmark, France and throughout the UK, including their own festival in Highnam. In 2010 the quartet will also embark on its debut tour of Australia as well as engagements in South America and North America (including New York, Philadelphia, Princeton, Los Angeles and Chautauqua).
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, Washington’s Library of Congress, 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 premiere new commissions from David Matthews, Adrian Williams, Simon Rowland Jones and Huang Ruo and 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 sarod player, Wajahat Khan. They also have performed with composer John Metcalfe and cellist Matthew Barley at Kings Place, London.
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 and West Cork Music. The quartet has also visited Gloucestershire primary schools, supported by the Summerfield Trust. 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.