Prize winners in no less than six International Chamber Music Competitions in the space of four years, the Carducci Quartet has quickly become recognised as one of Europe's top young string quartets. Prizes include 1st prize at the 2004 Kuhmo International Chamber Music Competition in Finland, winners of the special prize for "Communication & Culture" at the 2005 Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition and winners of the Jury prize at the 2006 London International String Quartet Competition.

Graduates of the top music conservatoires in Britain and Ireland, they have studied with members of many leading quartets including the Amadeus, Vanbrugh and Chilingirian and are the current recipients of the Bulldog Scholarship from Trinity College of Music. Most recently, they have studied in London with Gabor Takacs and the Wihan Quartet, in Paris with Gyorgy Kurtag and with Paul Katz of the Cleveland Quartet as part of the ProQuartet young professional training programme. The Carducci Quartet were also major prizewinners at the Osaka International Chamber Music Competition in Japan and at the "Charles Hennen" International Chamber Music Competition in Holland.

Following on from their critically acclaimed Purcell Room debut as part of the Park Lane Young Artists Series, the quartet have been invited to perform at numerous contemporary music festivals and societies, including The "Second Glance" Festival in London, and the Cheltenham Contemporary Music Society. Other highlights this season have included performances at the Luberon Chamber Music Festival in France and at the West Cork Chamber Music Festival in Ireland. Future projects include their Wigmore Hall debut, concerts in Scotland, Ireland, France, Hungary and Japan and a residency at Aldeburgh.

Tours abroad have taken the quartet to France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Belgium and Italy, where after performing numerous concerts at the Castagnetto-Carducci Festival, the quartet adopted the name "Carducci" with the blessing of the Mayor. In 2004 they were selected for the Countess of Munster Recital Scheme and recorded a CD of the music of Piazzolla with the Katona Twins for Channel Classics. They have also just released a CD of Haydn quartets. The quartet's educational work continues next year with performances for school children sponsored by the Cavatina Chamber Music Trust and numerous workshops in Ireland. They also run their own music courses in France for young musicians and have a strong link with both the Gloucester Academy of Music and the Cork School of Music.

Sample Programmes

Option A:

Haydn String Quartet Op.76 no.2 "Fifths"
Ravel String Quartet in F
Interval
Shostakovich String Quartet no.9

Option B:

Haydn String Quartet Op.20 no.4
Britten String Quartet no.1 in D
Interval
Dvorák String Quartet Op.96 "American"

Contemporary Music

Performing contemporary music is an important part of the Quartet's concert activity. This season they have performed works by; Brian Boydell, Osvaldo Golijov, Michael Zev Gordon, Joseph Horovitz, Tom Ingoldsby, György Kurtág, Liz Lane, Colin Matthews, David Matthews, Stephen Mcneff, John Tavener, Graham Whettam, Adrian Williams, Ian Wilson, John Woolrich and are happy to include a contemporary work in their programmes.

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More Info

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