The Liverpool String Quartet was founded in 2010 and is made up of musicians who met whilst playing together in the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Right from the beginning the quartet began to establish its reputation both in the UK and internationally. In 2011 the Quartet commenced a long standing relationship with the town of Castellvell del Camp in Tarragona, a venue to which they have returned multiple times, most recently to perform as part of the 2023 Castellvell MusicFest with renowned guest violist Paul Cortese.
Internationally the quartet have also performed at the Teatro Principal de Valls, Pamplona Cathedral, and Olite, Navarre. In 2012 the Quartet conducted a concert tour of the Balearic Islands and were invited to perform in the inaugural concert of the prestigious International Music Festival of Mahon in Menorca. In one of the Quartet’s more recent international ventures they were invited to Ireland in 2022 by the National String Quartet Foundation. There, they performed in venues throughout the country culminating in a performance at the National Concert Hall, Dublin which was also recorded for RTE radio.
Closer to home the LSQ have had residencies at the Bluecoat Arts Centre in the heart of Liverpool from 2012 to 2015 and the Nordic Church, Liverpool from 2016 to 2018. Notable performances at the Williamson Art Gallery on the Wirral, Liverpool’s Anglican Cathedral, the Atkinson Art Gallery, Mayer Hall, the Bombed-Out-Church, the Music Room at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall and St. George’s Hall have cemented the quartet’s position as as an integral part of the vibrant Liverpool music scene.
During 2014 the LSQ was involved in a project called “Heart Variations for String Quartet” in which the Quartet gave world premieres of compositions commissioned for the occasion by recognised Liverpool based composers, Ian Stephens and Meike Holzmann at St George’s Hall in Liverpool, with outstanding reviews in the principal arts magazines of the North-West of England. In 2018, the LSQ’s Beatles concert with Hunter Davies was a Carlisle Living Magazine’s finalist for “Event of the Year”.
The Liverpool String Quartet have also frequently collaborated with musicians including internationally renowned chamber musician and orchestral leader James Clark, violinist and founding member of Manchester Collective Rakhi Singh, Principal Clarinet of the Welsh National Opera Orchestra Thomas Verity, Principal Flute of Scottish Opera Eilidh Gillespie and internationally celebrated concert pianist Martin Roscoe.
Other collaborations have included working with Catalan actor Jaume Comas and author Hunter Davies. As well as recording an unforgettable version of ‘The Snowman’, specially arranged for the Quartet by composer Howard Blake with the late Sir Ken Dodd in what we believe was the last recorded voice work of his incredible career.
The Quartet is proud to continue to collaborate with Catalan Music Company Ars Aurea Sonora, to promote the most outstanding national and international musicians. They look forward to upcoming performances including a collaboration with ‘The Chamber Stiwdio’ with whom they will curate a mini Winter Festival in Cardiff in December 2023, a return visit to the Music Room at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall in 2024 as well as completing their anticipated album of Piazzolla’s Four Seasons.