String Quartet in Residence
The Harriet's Trust began sponsoring a String Quartet in Residence programme in 2018. We are extremely grateful to the Trust for enabling a young string quartet to join the festival for a week of coaching with the Benyounes Quartet, Jeremy Young and other festival Artists for four consecutive years.
During the week there are a number of masterclasses that are open to the Supporters of the Festival to watch in order to see the creative and developmental process from the beginning of the week to the culminating concert at St Andrew's Church on Sunday afternoon.
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The resident quartet also perform alongside the musicians in the Opening Concert.
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Previous recipients
2023 Treske Quartet
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2024 recipients
Established in 2020, the award-winning Kyan Quartet brings together four exceptional musicians from the United Kingdom, the United States, China, and France. The quartet enjoys a busy and vibrant career, having performed across Europe and Asia. Recent highlights include winning the Richmond Concert Society String Ensemble Award at the 2024 Royal Over-Seas League Competition, and touring throughout China. As upcoming Tunnell Trust award winners, the quartet are looking forward to going on tour across Scotland in February 2025. They have held residencies with the Britten Pears Young Artist Programme and the European String Teachers Association. Recent collaborations include guitar quintets with Ahmed Dickinson at Wigmore Hall and Mendelssohn’s famed Octet with the Carducci Quartet. Past successes include receiving first place in the 2021 RAM Wolfe Wolfinsohn String Quartet Competition, where the quartet was praised for their “terrific, passionate and inspiring performance”.
In the past year, the quartet have won places on prestigious chamber music courses, including Jeunesses Musicales Deutschland’s 68th International Chamber Music Campus, and Chamber Studio’s inaugural Hans Keller Forum. Through these they have received coaching from Heime Müller, John Myerscough, Richard Ireland, the Kuss Quartet, Alasdair Beatson and Péter Nagy. The quartet continues to be mentored by Ying Xue of the Doric Quartet.
Widening musical participation and access is central to the quartet’s artistic mission. They are Live Music Now artists, sharing their love of participatory music-making in care homes and SEND schools. The quartet are looking forward to coaching chamber ensembles and giving masterclasses at the Junior Royal Academy of Music and Poole Society for Young Musicians. As the 2022/23 fellows of the Open Academy/Wigmore Hall Learning Programme, they appeared regularly on the Wigmore Hall stage and in community settings, sharing music with families, young children, and those living with dementia. The Kyans are excited to return to the Wigmore this October to perform a low stimulus concert as part of the organisation’s Imagine Series.
The Kyan Quartet prides themselves on championing new music. During their Wigmore fellowship, they premiered Reef, a commission by Florence Anna Maunders. Other premieres include a performance at the 2022 Timber Festival of Symphony for String Quartet and Forest by Jacob Fitzgerald, which featured 200 school children singing alongside the quartet. This summer, the Kyans collaborated with Cem Güven to record his quartet Atmospheric Manipulations.
