The Sacconi Quartet is a UK-based
classical music
Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" also ...
string quartet
The term string quartet can refer to either a type of musical composition or a group of four people who play them. Many composers from the mid-18th century onwards wrote string quartets. The associated musical ensemble consists of two violinists ...
founded in 2001 by four graduates of the
Royal College of Music
The Royal College of Music is a music school, conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the Undergraduate education, undergraduate to the Doctorate, doctoral level in a ...
,
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
,
UK. The Quartet has achieved widespread recognition, having given recitals in leading British concert halls and at music festivals in Britain and across Europe. They have also won several major prizes in
string quartet
The term string quartet can refer to either a type of musical composition or a group of four people who play them. Many composers from the mid-18th century onwards wrote string quartets. The associated musical ensemble consists of two violinists ...
and chamber music competitions. The Quartet is named for the outstanding twentieth-century Italian violin maker and restorer
Simone Sacconi, whose book ''The Secrets of Stradivari'' is considered an indispensable reference for violin makers.
Members
The quartet retains its founding members, who are:
*
Ben Hancox,
violin
The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...
Hannah Dawson violin
The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...
*Robin Ashwell,
viola
The viola ( , also , ) is a string instrument that is bow (music), bowed, plucked, or played with varying techniques. Slightly larger than a violin, it has a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of ...
Cara Berridge '
cello
The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...
About
Since its formation at the
Royal College of Music
The Royal College of Music is a music school, conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the Undergraduate education, undergraduate to the Doctorate, doctoral level in a ...
in 2001, the Sacconi Quartet has established a secure and substantial reputation. The Quartet is recognised for its unanimous and compelling ensemble, performing with style and commitment and consistently communicating with a fresh and imaginative approach. Its four founder members demonstrate a shared passion for string quartet repertoire, infectiously reaching out to audiences with their energy and enthusiasm. The Quartet have enjoyed a highly successful international career, performing regularly throughout Europe, at London's major venues, in recordings and radio broadcasts. The Sacconi is ''Quartet in Association'' at the
Royal College of Music
The Royal College of Music is a music school, conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the Undergraduate education, undergraduate to the Doctorate, doctoral level in a ...
and ''Associate Artist'' at the
Bristol Old Vic Theatre.
The Sacconi Quartet is renowned for its vigorous and individual approach to music-making. In 2008, the Quartet held the inaugura
Sacconi Chamber Music Festivalin Folkestone, Kent. Now in its fifth year, the festival is an established event in the cultural calendar and is expanding year on year with challenging programming and exciting collaborations. The Sacconi Quartet has performed at all the major London venues including
Wigmore Hall
Wigmore Hall is a concert hall located at 36 Wigmore Street, London. Originally called Bechstein Hall, it specialises in performances of chamber music, early music, vocal music and song recitals. It is widely regarded as one of the world's leadin ...
,
Kings Place
Kings Place is a building in London’s Kings Cross area, providing music and visual arts venues combined with seven floors of office space. It has housed the editorial offices of ''The Guardian'' newspaper since December 2008 and is the for ...
,
Cadogan Hall
Cadogan Hall is a 950-seat capacity concert hall in Sloane Terrace in Chelsea in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England.
The resident music ensemble at Cadogan Hall is the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO), the first ...
,
Queen Elizabeth Hall
The Queen Elizabeth Hall (QEH) is a music venue on the South Bank in London, England, that hosts classical, jazz, and avant-garde music, talks and dance performances. It was opened in 1967, with a concert conducted by Benjamin Britten.
The ...
,
Purcell Room
The Purcell Room is a concert and performance venue which forms part of the Southbank Centre, one of central London's leading cultural complexes. It is named after the 17th century England, English composer Henry Purcell and has 370 seats. The Pu ...
and
Conway Hall
The Conway Hall Ethical Society, formerly the South Place Ethical Society, based in London at Conway Hall, is thought to be the oldest surviving freethought organisation in the world and is the only remaining ethical society in the United King ...
. They have travelled extensively throughout the rest of the UK and Europe to venues including
Bridgewater Hall
The Bridgewater Hall is a concert venue in Manchester city centre, England. It cost around £42 million to build in the 1990s, and hosts over 250 performances a year. It is home to the 165-year-old Hallé Orchestra as well as to the Hallé ...
in Manchester,
Musikverein
The ( or ; ), commonly shortened to , is a concert hall in Vienna, Austria, which is located in the Innere Stadt district. The building opened in 1870 and is the home of the Vienna Philharmonic orchestra.
The acoustics of the building's 'Great ...
in Vienna, Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam,
L'Auditori
L'Auditori () is a modern building of 42,000 square metres designed by the architect Rafael Moneo, opened on 22 March 1999, in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.
It is in the centre of the new pole of urban development of Plaça de les Glòries, which ...
in Barcelona and
Auditorio Nacional de Música
The Auditorio Nacional de Música (''National Auditorium of Music'') is a complex of concert venues located in Madrid, Spain and the main concert hall in the Madrid metropolitan area. It comprises two main concert rooms: a symphonic hall and a cham ...
in Madrid as well as many venues in Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, France, Finland, Norway and the Czech Republic. In 2008 the Sacconi made their debut at the Liceo de Cámara Madrid, and in 2009 at the Concerts du Midi, Brussels and the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in Germany. The Quartet also made their first visit to the Middle East in 2009, where they were invited by the British Council to give concerts and workshops in Jordan's capital city, Amman.
Highlights of the 2014/15 season include collaborations with
Miloš Karadaglić, Ksenija Sidorova and the Vertavo Quartet as well as performances in Switzerland, Spain and across the UK, including returning to the
Wigmore Hall
Wigmore Hall is a concert hall located at 36 Wigmore Street, London. Originally called Bechstein Hall, it specialises in performances of chamber music, early music, vocal music and song recitals. It is widely regarded as one of the world's leadin ...
. Highlights of recent seasons include collaborations with
Pekka Kuusisto
Pekka Kuusisto (born 7 October 1976 in Espoo) is a Finnish musician.
Biography
Kuusisto comes from a musical lineage. His grandfather was a composer and organist, his father is a jazz musician who has composed operas, and his mother is a music t ...
,
Freddy Kempf
Frederick Albert Kempf (born 14 October 1977) is a British pianist born in Croydon to a German father and a Japanese mother. He lives in Berlin.
Early life
Kempf was born in Croydon.
He was educated at The Junior Kings School and St Edmund's ...
,
Mark Simpson and
, performances in Germany, Spain, Holland, the Quartet's debut in Italy and the completion of their second major project at
Kings Place
Kings Place is a building in London’s Kings Cross area, providing music and visual arts venues combined with seven floors of office space. It has housed the editorial offices of ''The Guardian'' newspaper since December 2008 and is the for ...
, performing the great piano quintets over two years with pianist Simon Crawford-Phillips. The Sacconi performed their 10th birthday celebratory concert at
Kings Place
Kings Place is a building in London’s Kings Cross area, providing music and visual arts venues combined with seven floors of office space. It has housed the editorial offices of ''The Guardian'' newspaper since December 2008 and is the for ...
to a sold-out hall.
In Summer 2015 the quartet embarked on an exciting new immersive project called HEARTFELT. A radical reinterpretation of Beethoven's iconic String Quartet in A minor opus 132, HEARTFELT pushed the boundaries of chamber music through combining sound, light and touch, for a truly unique performance in which audience members connected with each performer's heartbeat through holding robotic ‘hearts’. Developed in a unique collaboration with robotics and lighting designers and funded by Arts Council England, HEARTFELT received 4-star reviews from The Guardian and The Independent, and was described by the latter as “a powerful way to experience the visceral physicality of Beethoven’s profound thanksgiving”
www.heartfelt.org.uk
Premieres and collaborations
To date the Quartet has given twenty world premières and three British premières, including quartets by
György Kurtág
György Kurtág (; born 19 February 1926) is a Hungarian classical composer and pianist. He was an academic teacher of piano at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music from 1967, later also of chamber music, and taught until 1993.
Biography
György ...
,
Robin Holloway
Robin Greville Holloway (born 19 October 1943) is an English composer, academic and writer.
Early life
Holloway was born in Leamington Spa. From 1953 to 1957, he was a chorister at St Paul's Cathedral and was educated at King's College School, ...
,
Paul Patterson,
Timothy Salter
Timothy Salter (born in Mexborough, Yorkshire in 1942) is an English composer, conductor and pianist.
Biography
Timothy Salter studied at St John's College, Cambridge, where he won the John Stewart of Rannoch Scholarship in sacred music. His ...
,
John Metcalf and Alun Hoddinott, and recently they performed as the solo string quartet on Paul McCartney's new song ''Come Home''. The Sacconi Quartet has been joined on stage by many artists including
Mark Padmore
Mark Padmore (born 8 March 1961) is a British tenor appearing in concerts, recitals, and opera.
He was born in London on 8 March 1961, and raised in Canterbury, Kent, England. Padmore studied clarinet and piano prior to his gaining a choral s ...
,
Melvyn Tan
Melvyn Tan Ban Eng (; born 13 October 1956) is a Singapore-born British classical pianist, noted for his study of historical performance practice.
From a young age, he went to England to study, first at the Yehudi Menuhin School when he was twelv ...
,
Andrew Marriner
Andrew Marriner (born 25 February 1954[MARRINER, Andrew Stephen](_blank)
''Who's Who 2 ...
,
Vladimir Ashkenazy
Vladimir Davidovich Ashkenazy (russian: Влади́мир Дави́дович Ашкена́зи, ''Vladimir Davidovich Ashkenazi''; born 6 July 1937) is an internationally recognized solo pianist, chamber music performer, and conductor. He ...
,
Guy Johnston, Alasdair Beatson, Tom Poster, Matthew Rose,
Bellowhead
Bellowhead is an English contemporary folk band, active from 2004 to 2016, reforming in 2020. The eleven-piece act played traditional dance tunes, folk songs and shanties, with arrangements drawing inspiration from a wide range of musical style ...
’s
Jon Boden
Jon Boden (born 17 March 1977) is a singer, composer and musician, best known as lead singer and main arranger of Bellowhead. His first instrument is the fiddle and he is a proponent of "English traditional fiddle style" and also of "fiddle ...
and actor
Timothy West
Timothy Lancaster West, CBE (born 20 October 1934) is an English actor and presenter. He has appeared frequently on both stage and television, including stints in both ''Coronation Street'' (as Eric Babbage) and ''EastEnders'' (as Stan Carter) ...
. In 2006, baritone
Roderick Williams
Roderick Gregory Coleman Williams OBE (born 1965) is a British baritone and composer.
Biography
Williams was born in North London to a Welsh father and a Jamaican mother. He attended Christ Church Cathedral School in Oxford and Haberdashers' ...
and the Sacconi Quartet made the premiere recording of
Gerald Finzi
Gerald Raphael Finzi (14 July 1901 – 27 September 1956) was a British composer. Finzi is best known as a choral composer, but also wrote in other genres. Large-scale compositions by Finzi include the cantata '' Dies natalis'' for solo voice and ...
's 1921-22 song cycle ''
By Footpath and Stile''.
Education work
Firm believers in the importance of bringing chamber music to the next generation, the Sacconi Quartet dedicates much passion, time and energy to education work. They regularly lead workshops and give schools and family concerts as part of the Sacconi Chamber Music Festival outreach programme and th
CAVATINA Chamber Music Trust Their latest project, an educational show entitled The String Thing, with script by Matthew Sharp, has gone down a storm wherever it is performed.
Awards and recognition
* First Prize, Trondheim International String Quartet Competition, Norway, 2005.
* Kurtag Prize
Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition France, 2005.
* First Prize in the
Royal Over-Seas League
The Royal Over-Seas League (ROSL) is a not-for-profit members' organisation with international headquarters in its clubhouse in central London, England.
Founded by Sir Evelyn Wrench in 1910 as the Over-Seas Club, it was given a Royal Charter ...
Chamber Music Competition, UK 2005.
* Leverhulme Junior Fellows, Royal College of Music, UK.
* Second Prize
London International String Quartet Competition UK, 2006.
* The Esterhazy Prize for the best performance of a Haydn quartet in the preliminary round, London International String Quartet Competition, UK, 2006.
* The
Sidney Griller
Sidney Griller CBE (10 January 1911 – 20 November 1993) was an English violinist. He was leader of the Griller Quartet from 1928 to 1963, and a teacher of chamber music at the Royal Academy of Music.
Life
Griller was born in 1911; his parents ...
Award for the best performance of the three compulsory pieces in the preliminary round, London International String Quartet Competition, UK, 2006.
* Shortlisted for a
Royal Philharmonic Society
The Royal Philharmonic Society (RPS) is a British music society, formed in 1813. Its original purpose was to promote performances of instrumental music in London. Many composers and performers have taken part in its concerts. It is now a memb ...
award, UK, 2006.
* Selected for representation by
Young Concert Artists Trust (YCAT), UK, 2006.
* Awarded an Angel Award for outstanding performances in the
Edinburgh International Festival
The Edinburgh International Festival is an annual arts festival in Edinburgh, Scotland, spread over the final three weeks in August. Notable figures from the international world of music (especially classical music) and the performing arts are i ...
by The Herald newspaper,
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
,
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
, UK, August 2006.
Recordings
The Sacconi Quartet has its own, highly successful, record label. Sacconi Records is expanding by one or two releases each year. In 2011 a disc of Czech quartets was released which has received widespread critical acclaim and was tipped as a classical chart 'Hot Shot' by Classic FM. Their debut recording of Haydn's opus 54 quartets was praised in the press and both the Ravel and Haydn discs were featured in The Full Works programme on Classic FM. Their 2006 recording of Finzi's song cycle ''By Footpath and Stile'' with baritone Roderick Williams for Naxos was well received in all the national broadsheets and BBC Music Magazine.
*
Haydn String Quartets opus 54': Sacconi Quartet on Sacconi Records (SACC101)
*
Quartets by Ravel, Lalo and Turina': Sacconi Quartet on Sacconi Records (SACC102)
*
Beethoven String Quartets opus 18, volume I': Sacconi Quartet on Sacconi Records (SACC103)
*
Quartets by Dvorak, Smetana and Suk': Sacconi Quartet on Sacconi Records (SACC104)
*
Gerald Finzi
Gerald Raphael Finzi (14 July 1901 – 27 September 1956) was a British composer. Finzi is best known as a choral composer, but also wrote in other genres. Large-scale compositions by Finzi include the cantata '' Dies natalis'' for solo voice and ...
, Songs: ''
Earth and Air and Rain''/''By Footpath and Stile''/''To a Poet'':
Roderick Williams
Roderick Gregory Coleman Williams OBE (born 1965) is a British baritone and composer.
Biography
Williams was born in North London to a Welsh father and a Jamaican mother. He attended Christ Church Cathedral School in Oxford and Haberdashers' ...
(baritone),
Iain Burnside
Iain Burnside is a Scottish classical pianist and accompanist, and a former presenter on BBC Radio 3.
Following study at Merton College, Oxford, the Royal Academy of Music and the Chopin Academy, in Warsaw he became a freelance pianist, special ...
(piano) and The Sacconi Quartet. The English Song Series 15. Naxos (2006).
References
External links
Official website of the Sacconi QuartetPrize Winners in the 2006 London International String Quartet CompetitionProfile on the Royal College of Music website
{{Authority control
Musical groups established in 2001
English string quartets
Classical music in London