Carducci String Quartet

Matthew Denton, violin
Michelle Fleming, violin
Eoin Schmidt-Martin, viola
Emma Denton, cello

Winner, 2007 CAG Competition

www.carducciquartet.co.uk

Visit our YouTube page for video on Carducci!

Already recognized as one of Europe’s top young quartets, the Carducci String Quartet’s North American career is off to an auspicious start after winning the 2007 Concert Artists Guild International Competition.   Hailed by The Times (London) as “stunning…clearly musicians of high intelligence,” the Quartet also captured First Prize at Finland’s Kuhmo International Chamber Music Competition and major awards at the chamber music competitions in Bordeaux, London and Osaka.

Season highlights for 2009-10 include the Carducci Quartet’s Washington, DC debut at the Library of Congress and a return to New York on the Schneider Concerts series at the New School, as well as concerts at the University of Nevada/Reno, Lancaster (CA) Performing Arts Center, and for the Melbourne (FL), Little Rock and South Bay (CA) Chamber Music Societies.

In 2008-09 the Carducci Quartet made its Carnegie Hall debut at Weill Recital Hall on the CAG/Winners Series with a program including a world premiere by composer Huang Ruo.  Other NYC performances that season include Symphony Space’s Thalia Theatre on the CAG/New Works series, Barbès Bar and Performance Space in Brooklyn. 

The Quartet recently went into the studio to record its debut CD for the NAXOS label, featuring the first four string quartets of Philip Glass, due for release in June 2010, and they will follow that up soon by recording the fifth quartet and the string sextet, also for NAXOS.  The ensemble has established its own record label, Carducci Classics, launched with a CD of Haydn Quartets.  Two discs featuring 20th century works by Graham Whettam and Joseph Horovitz have just been released, and a third disc with works by Brian Boydell is soon to follow.  The Carducci Quartet has also recorded works by Vivaldi and Piazzolla with the Katona Twins Guitar Duo for Channel Classics. 

In 2007-08, the Carducci Quartet toured England, Ireland, Italy, Japan and Panama.  Recent UK performance highlights include London’s Wigmore Hall and the Purcell Room at the Southbank Centre, the Cheltenham Contemporary Music Society and the “Second Glance,” Kilkenny, Three Choirs, Exeter and Kings Lynn Festivals. 

Comprised of two married couples – one English and one Irish – the name ‘Carducci’ was bestowed upon the quartet by the Mayor of that Italian city after he heard the ensemble in numerous concerts at the Castagnetto-Carducci Festival.  Since then, the Carducci Quartet has been in residence at the 2006 Aldeburgh Festival and recently launched its own festival in Gloucestershire, UK. 

The Carducci Quartet regularly performs for UK school children through the Cavatina Chamber Music Trust and West Cork Music.  Additional residencies include Ireland’s Cork School of Music, London’s Trinity College of Music, Cardiff University in Wales and a self-produced seminar for young musicians in France.

The four Carducci players have studied with members of the Amadeus, Chilingirian, Takacs and Vanbrugh quartets, and they are the current Richard Carne Junior Fellows at Trinity College of Music. As part of the ProQuartet professional training program in France, they have studied with Gyorgy Kurtag, Paul Katz and Valentin Erben of the Alban Berg Quartet.