Ensembles from the European Chamber Music Academy

“Style, assurance and direction from the first bar – an interpretation whose confidence and polish didn’t preclude a sense of real drama.” – Richard Bratby.

Winners of the Tunnell Trust Awards 2020, the Elmore String Quartet (formerly the Freeman String Quartet) is a dynamic young ensemble formed at the Royal Northern College of Music in 2017.

Working closely with Donald Grant (Elias String Quartet) and Petr Prause (Talich String Quartet), the group found early success winning the RNCM’s Nossek and Hirsch Chamber Music Prizes for their performances of Mendelssohn’s String Quartet Op. 12, and Beethoven’s Quartet Op. 132.

These successes led to performances across the UK, performing recitals for Manchester Concert Society, the Lake District International Music Festival and the South Downs International Summer Music Festival, where they became the first ‘Quartet in Residence’ in 2018. The South Downs Festival presented them with the opportunity to learn with the Benyounes String Quartet, as well as giving the closing performance of the festival where they performed works by Smetana, Haydn and Glass in St. Andrews Church, Alfriston Sussex.

In 2020, the Elmore Quartet were appointed as the RNCM’s Studio Quartet. They enjoyed an intense year of study, culminating in a second place finish at the CAVATINA Intercollegiate Chamber Music Competition in Wigmore Hall. During their time as Studio Quartet, they had the privilege of working with both Frederik øland (Danish Quartet) and Bruno Schrecker (Allegri Quartet).

In 2021, the Quartet were delighted to be appointed as Junior Fellows in Chamber Music at the RNCM for the academic year 2021/22. This position allows the Quartet to continue to work intensely together alongside coaching young chamber ensembles at the RNCM. This year, the Quartet have enjoyed touring Scotland as well as recording Joseph Bologne Concertante Quartet No. 2 as part of the BBC Philharmonic’s Diversity in Music programme for BBC Radio 3.

The Iberia Quartet was founded in Madrid in 2018. Since its creation, the quartet has maintained the quartet tradition of its masters, bringing a new point of view to the interpretation of the great works of the genre. From a very young age, the individual need of each of the members to deepen the work written for string quartet, has led them to get together and create this group, which is the maximum exponent of their artistic expression and with which they manage to create an exceptional musical atmosphere.

In June 2021 they won the place to study within the chair of string quartet of the Universität Mozarteum Salzburg with the Uni. Prof. Cibrán Sierra (Quiroga Quartet).

They have also received masterclasses from Valentin Erben and Isabel Charisius (Alban Berg Quartett), Heime Müller (Artemis Quartet), Paul Watkins (Emerson String Quartet), Jana Kuss, William Coleman and Mikayel Hakhnazaryan (Kuss Quartett), Frank Reinecke and Stefan Fehlandt (Vogler Quartett), Simone Gramaglia (Quartetto di Cremona), Helena Poggio (Quiroga Quartet), Carole Petitdemange (Quatuor Ardeo), Leonhard Roczek (Minetti Quartett), Alasdair Tait (Belcea Quartet) and André J. Roy. It is also worth mentioning his participation in international festivals in cities such as Salzburg, Würzburg, Weikersheim, Paris, Montréal, Venice, Milan or Lucca. At the national level, in Madrid, Barcelona, Granada, Burgos, León or Santander.

The Iberia Quartet is part of several European quartet institutions such as ECMA, Le Dimore del Quartetto and ProQuartet. At the same time they also carry out pedagogical work, giving classes and courses to young musicians and groups.

They have been awarded with the first prize in the 26th Josep Mirabent i Magrans Chamber Music Competition of Catalonia, with the second prize in the XIX Arnuero International Chamber Music Competition and with Honorable Mention in the Zukunftsklang Award 2022 Stuttgart.

Since the beginning of 2022, the Iberia Quartet has been the resident quartet of the Lázaro Galdiano Museum in Madrid and members of the Menéndez Pelayo Royal Society, founded in 1918. They play modern Cremona instruments (Pascal Hornung, Diego Taje and Martin Gabbani) and an unknown eighteenth-century violin from Mittelwald.

One of the great qualities of the quartet is its versatility when it comes to covering the music of very diverse composers and creating projects based on research and study of the work of authors of different periods and styles.

The Sonoris Piano Trio was founded in 2021, but its history dates back to 2018, when they first performed Olivier Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time together. Since then, their collaboration can be described as intense. The Sonoris Piano Trio: Marta Mazurek – violin; Miguel Braga – cello; Simon Popp – piano, are three very strong individuals who have established a particularly close dialogue with each other, which has enabled them to synthesise emotionally and expressively.

As John Ruskin once said: ‘To banish imperfection is to destroy expression, to paralyse vitality.’ The Sonoris Piano Trio’s main premise is not to strive for perfection, but for a unique unity of sound, expression and utterance. They focus on the precision of performance, but most of all on forming an extraordinary and unique connection to the music, one another and the public at the same time creating the exceptional atmosphere and sonority of each performed piece. This musical intention was noticed during the chamber music exams at Hochschule der Künste Bern, resulting with selection for the well known Excellence Concert Series „Halt auf Verlangen”, taking place in Berner Generationenhaus.

The Sonoris Piano Trio, despite their small seniority, have had the honor of working with such musical personalities as: Ernesto Molinari, Patrick Jüdt, Tomasz Herbut, Monika Urbaniak-Lisik, Antonio Meneses, Antoine Françoise and David Eggert. At the moment, Sonoris Piano Trio is preparing for the world-famous ECMA European Chamber Music Academy. Sonoris plays an Amorim 2020 cello and a violin by a luthier unknown ca.1800.

The Treske Quartet was formed in 2017 for a chamber music course in North Yorkshire, and still play an active role in delivering high quality chamber music in the area. Over the past two years the quartet have given recitals in the UK and abroad, notably the Rydale Festival, Llandeilo International Music Festival, Buxton Recital Series and the New Generation Festival. The Quartet’s members consist of Oliver Baily, Mollie Wrafter, Abigail Hammett and Rob Wheatley, who all studied at the Royal Northern College of Music.

Collectively the members have amassed a wealth of experience as soloists, orchestral and chamber musicians, and as freelancers they regularly appear with professional ensembles and orchestras across the British Isles. They recently collaborated with the Radius Opera Company, performing Tim Benjamin’s new opera “The Fire of Olympus” in venues across the North of England. In the summer of 2022, the quartet were invited to Alberta, Canada to participate on the Quartet:Evolution course at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. There they worked with the world renowned ‘JACK’, ‘Parker’, and ‘Eybler’ string quartets and Puerto Rican composer Gabriel Bouche, performing his piece ‘La Candela’ in recital.