Ligeti Quartet
Formed in 2010, the Ligeti Quartet are quickly establishing themselves as leading exponents of contemporary music in the United Kingdom. They have gained a reputation for an innovative approachto works by established and emerging composers, through collaborations with performance artists, video artists, actors and DJs. Their playing has taken them across the globe with a recent series of performances around China and at HellHot! New Music Festival in Hong Kong. They are currently Featured Artists for Yorkshire Live Music Project and were selected as Park Lane Group Young Artists 2012-13, which recently presented the quartet to a full house at the Purcell Room. In 2013 they were selection as an associated ensemble of the European Chamber Music Academy. They will record a CD for Signum Classics featuring a collection of new commissions for string quartet and trumpet, for release in 2014.
The Ligeti Quartet maintains a particular interest in education, regularly leading workshops and recording pieces by student composers from Oxford University, King’s College London, Royal Academy of Music, Surrey University and York St John University. Collaborations with Peter Maxwell Davies and Simon Bainbridge on their composition courses at Benslow Music Trust were highlights of the past two summers. The quartet has performed over 20 world premieres, with more to come in May 2013 when they will be adjudicating the David Lovatt Music Composition Prize at the University of Surrey.
The quartet comprises graduates from the Royal Academy of Music, Royal College of Music and Oxford University. As an ensemble they have been coached by members of the Arditti, Bingham, Chilingirian and Kreutzer quartets and have performed for ChamberStudio masterclasses at Kings Place, London. In early 2012 the quartet took part in the Barbican’s Kronos Lab, studying intensively with the Kronos Quartet during their UK tour.
The Ligeti Quartet enjoy presenting new and 20th-century works to new audiences in pubs and outdoor venues, and have supported a diverse array of performers beyond the classical music world, including Bishi, Chris Helme, Laura Jurd, and the Mexican company Teatro de Ciertos Habitantes.
Mandhira de Saram. violin.
Patrick Dawkins. violin.
Richard Jones. viola.
Valerie Welbanks. cello.
