Solem String Quartet
Sunday 26th January 2020 at 3pm
Since winning the 2014 Royal Over-Seas League Ensemble Competition, the Solem Quartet has established itself as one of the most innovative and adventurous quartets of its generation.
Programme
Haydn: Quartet in D major, op. 64, no. 5, The Lark
Brahms: String Quartet in A minor, op. 51, no. 2
Beethoven: Quartet no. 12 in E flat major, op. 127
Biography
They enjoy a busy concert schedule, ranging from international tours to performances at venues such as London’s Wigmore and Queen Elizabeth Halls, Bridgewater Hall in Manchester and Oxford’s Holywell Music Room. Alongside this, their groundbreaking series ‘Solem Lates’ has seen the Quartet rise to prominence as leading exponents of new music, working closely with living composers in pioneering multimedia performances.
The 2020-2021 season will see the launch of their Bartók and Beethoven Cycle, in which they will perform all six of Bartók’s string quartets from memory alongside Beethoven’s late quartets. The Cycle will also include six brand new works, bringing their total number of commissions and premieres to sixteen.
The Solem Quartet has benefited from inspirational teaching from a number of the world’s greatest chamber musicians, as well as attending IMS Prussia Cove and the European Chamber Music. In 2016-17 they were selected as both Tunnell Trust Artists and Park Lane Group Artists.
The Quartet takes great pride in its educational work. From 2015-17 they held the Junior Fellowship in Chamber Music at the Royal Northern College of Music and since 2016 they have been Quartet in Residence at the University of Liverpool. They are also Ensemble in Residence at Aberystwyth MusicFest.
Originally formed at the University of Manchester in 2011, the Solem Quartet takes its name from the university’s motto arduus ad solem – ‘striving towards the sun’.