Coull Quartet

Last updated

Coull Quartet
CQjb1web.jpg
Background information
Years active1974 (1974)
Members
Past members

The Coull Quartet is an English string quartet that was founded at the Royal Academy of Music, London in 1974 [1] under the guidance of renowned quartet leader, Sidney Griller. They were appointed Quartet-in-Residence by the University of Warwick in 1977. The Quartet, which includes two of its founder members, has performed and broadcast extensively throughout the UK, and has made tours of Western Europe, the Americas, Australia, China, India and the Far East.

Since the mid-1980s the Coull Quartet has made over 30 recordings featuring a wide selection of the repertoire from the complete Mendelssohn and Schubert quartets to 20th century and contemporary British chamber music. Their CD of quartets by Maw and Britten on the Somm label was also described as the ‘Benchmark Recording’ by BBC Music Magazine in addition to being featured in ‘Editor’s Choice’ in The Gramophone.

Their list of commissions includes works by Peter Seabourne, Sally Beamish, Edward Cowie, Joe Cutler, David Matthews, Nicholas Maw, and Robert Simpson. These include string quartets, quintets with piano or wind player, works with solo voice or choir, and even a piece for quartet and table tennis players!

The Quartet regularly plays in the Great Comp Music Festival in Kent during summer classical music festivals. [2] They played on 5, 12 and 18 September 2010 (after the death of Roderick Cameron, founder of Great Comp Garden). [3]

Related Research Articles

Robert Wilfred Levick Simpson was an English composer, as well as a long-serving BBC producer and broadcaster.

The Alberni Quartet is a British string quartet, whose members have included:

The Gabrieli String Quartet is a well-known string quartet musical ensemble founded in 1966. It has a long residency association with Essex University, UK.

The Alban Berg Quartett was a string quartet founded in Vienna, Austria in 1970, named after Alban Berg.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Adès</span> British composer, pianist and conductor

Thomas Joseph Edmund Adès is a British composer, pianist and conductor. Five compositions by Adès received votes in the 2017 Classic Voice poll of the greatest works of art music since 2000: The Tempest (2004), Violin Concerto (2005), Tevot (2007), In Seven Days (2008), and Polaris (2010).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wigmore Hall</span> Recital venue in London

The Wigmore Hall is a concert hall at 36 Wigmore Street, in west London. It was designed by Thomas Edward Collcutt and opened in 1901 as the Bechstein Hall; it is considered to have particularly good acoustics. It specialises in performances of chamber music, early music, vocal music and song recitals, and hosts over five hundred concerts each year, as well as a weekly concert broadcast on BBC Radio 3.

Colin Matthews, OBE is an English composer of contemporary classical music. Noted for his large-scale orchestral compositions, Matthews is also a prolific arranger of other composer's music, including works by Berlioz, Britten, Dowland, Mahler, Purcell and Schubert. Other arrangements include orchestrations of all Debussy's 24 Préludes, both books of Debussy's Images, and two movements—Oiseaux tristes and La vallée des cloches—from Ravel's Miroirs. Having received a doctorate from University of Sussex on the works of Mahler, from 1964–1975 Matthews worked with his brother David Matthews and musicologist Deryck Cooke on completing a performance version of Mahler's Tenth Symphony.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Mann</span> American musician, composer and conductor

Robert Nathaniel Mann was a violinist, composer, conductor, and founding member of the Juilliard String Quartet, as well as a faculty member at the Manhattan School of Music. Mann, the first violinist at Juilliard, served on the school's string quartet for over fifty years until his retirement in 1997.

Robert Saxton is a British composer.

Sarah Frances Beamish is a British composer and violist. Her works include chamber, vocal, choral and orchestral music. She has also worked in the field of music, theatre, film and television, as well as composing for children and for her local community.

The Sacconi Quartet is a UK-based classical music string quartet founded in 2001 by four graduates of the Royal College of Music, London, 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 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.

Edward Cowie is an Australian composer, author, natural scientist, and painter.

David Campbell is a British clarinettist.

Harlem Quartet is a string quartet that was originally composed of first-place laureates of the Sphinx Competition for Black and Latino string players. They were formed in 2006. The members are first violinist Ilmar Gavilán, second violinist Melissa White, violist Jaime Amador, and cellist Felix Umansky. The Quartet won Best Instrumental Composition at the 2013 Grammy Awards for Mozart Goes Dancing.

The Goldner String Quartet is an Australian string quartet formed in 1995 in honour of Richard Goldner, the founder of Musica Viva Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cecil Aronowitz</span> British classical violist (1916–1978)

Cecil Aronowitz was a British viola player, a founding member of the Melos Ensemble, a leading chamber musician, and an influential teacher at the Royal College of Music and the Royal Northern College of Music.

The Calder Quartet (CQ) is a string quartet based in Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1998 at the University of Southern California, the group takes its name from American sculptor Alexander Calder. The ensemble is currently composed of its founding members, including violinists Benjamin Jacobson and Tereza Stanislav, violist Jonathan Moerschel, and cellist Eric Byers. Los Angeles Times music critic, Mark Swed called the CQ "one of America's great string quartets." In 2014, the CQ was awarded one of Lincoln Center's prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grants for "professional assistance and recognition to talented instrumentalists who the Recommendation Board and Executive Committee believe have great potential."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Great Comp Garden</span>

Great Comp Garden is a Georgian farmhouse and garden, located on Comp Lane near the hamlet of Comp in Kent, England. It was developed by Roderick and Joyce Cameron in the 1950s, and features an Italian garden. It opened to the public in 1968, and now holds regular garden festivals and outdoor theatre productions.

Sidney Griller CBE 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.

The Doric String Quartet is based in the UK and was formed in 1998. As of 2023, the members are Alex Redington and Ying Xue on violin, Hélène Clément on viola and John Myerscough on cello. Past members include Jonathan Stone, Simon Tandree and Chris Brown. In 2008, the quartet won first prize at the Osaka International Chamber Music Competition and second prize at the "Premio Paolo Borciani" International String Quartet Competition. Their repertoire includes Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Bartók, Janáček, Korngold and Britten, as well as the work of contemporary composers such as John Adams, Thomas Adès and Brett Dean. They have given premieres of works by Dean, Peter Maxwell Davies and Donnacha Dennehy. The Doric is Teaching Quartet in Association with the Royal Academy of Music and artistic director of the Mendelssohn on Mull Festival. They have recorded for Chandos since 2009.

References

  1. Legg, Roger. A Family Archive: Memories and Letters. p. 184.
  2. "Obituary Roderick Cameron". www.greatcompgarden.co.uk. 2009. Archived from the original on 7 January 2014. Retrieved 7 January 2014.
  3. "Great Comp Music Festival: London Concertante, Coull Quartet and Allegri Quartet". 3 September 2010. Archived from the original on 10 June 2014. Retrieved 7 January 2014.