Academy String Orchestra

Firmly established as one of the leading quartets of its generation, the Doric String Quartet receives enthusiastic responses from audiences and critics across the globe. With repertoire ranging from Haydn through to Bartók, Thomas Adès and Brett Dean, the Quartet’s schedule takes them to the leading concert halls around the world including Het Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Konzerthaus Vienna, Konzerthaus Berlin, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Louvre, Carnegie Hall and Kioi Hall Tokyo, as well as regular performances at Wigmore Hall.

A recent highlight of its programming has been Brett Dean’s Third String Quartet, written specifically for the Quartet. Given its world premiere in June 2019, Hidden Agendas was co-commissioned for the Doric by Konzerthaus Berlin, Carnegie Hall, Amsterdam String Quartet Biennale, Edinburgh International Festival, Musica Viva Australia and the West Cork Chamber Music Festival.

Forthcoming highlights include returns to the Wigmore Hall, Madrid CNDM, Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and the Frederiksvaerk Festival, with other tours taking it to Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark and Israel. The Quartet returns to the US for its annual tour, where they will revisit their partnership with Benjamin Grosvenor for performances in San Francisco, Chicago and at Princeton College.

With a curiosity for repertoire and setting, the Quartet was delighted to take on John Adams’s Absolute Jest for string quartet and orchestra. The Quartet was invited to give the Austrian premiere at Konzerthaus Vienna with John Adams conducting, the Dutch premiere with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic at Het Concertgebouw Amsterdam under Markus Stenz and performed the piece with the BBC Scottish Symphony and BBC Symphony orchestras. Its recording of the piece with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Peter Oundjian, released on Chandos in 2018, was named Recording of the Month in BBC Music Magazine.

Alongside main season concerts the Quartet has a busy festival schedule and has performed at the Schwarzenberg Schubertiade, Grafenegg, Schwetzingen, Aldeburgh, Cheltenham, Delft, and Risør festivals, collaborating with artists including Ian Bostridge, Mark Padmore, Alexander Melnikov, Pieter Wispelwey, Jonathan Biss, Chen Halevi, Elisabeth Leonskaja, Alina Ibragimova and Cédric Tiberghien.

Since 2010, the Doric String Quartet has recorded exclusively for Chandos Records, with its releases covering repertoire ranging from Schumann through to Korngold and Walton, as well as works with orchestra including Elgar’s Introduction and Allegro. 2019 saw the release of the Quartet’s benchmark recording of the complete Britten String Quartets, which gathered glittering reviews. Recorded at Snape Maltings Concert Hall in conjunction with a series of performances at the Britten Weekend celebrations, the disc was Album of the Week in The Sunday Times and Editor’s Choice in Gramophone. The Quartet’s ongoing commitment to Haydn has so far seen it record the complete Op 20, Op 76 and Op 64 Quartets with the recordings attracting acclaim including Editor’s Choice in Gramophone, Choc du Mois in Classica Magazine and a shortlisting for a Gramophone Award. The next instalment in the Quartet’s series of Haydn recordings was released in October 2020, with other future recording plans including quartets by Mozart and Mendelssohn.

Formed in 1998, the Doric String Quartet won First Prize at the 2008 Osaka International Chamber Music Competition and Second Prize at the Premio Paolo Borciani International String Quartet Competition. In 2015 the Quartet was appointed as Teaching Quartet in Association at the Royal Academy of Music in London and from 2018 the Quartet took over the Artistic Directorship of the Mendelssohn on Mull Festival, a position which sees it play a key role in implementing the Festival’s core mission of providing young chamber music professionals with a week of intensive mentoring, coaching and development.

The Quartet’s viola player Hélène Clément plays a viola by Guissani from 1843, generously on loan from Britten-Pears Arts and previously owned by Frank Bridge and Benjamin Britten.

Flute
Sarah Marine
Ieva Kuprevičiūtė

Oboe
Christopher Vettraino
Ignacio Cano Raboso

Clarinet
Maria Gomes
Elena Sale

Bassoon
Ruihan Kee
Phillip Pike

Horn
Annemarie Federle
William Scotland

Trumpet
Eliza Talman
James Kelly

Timpani
Jonathan Fourrier

First violin
Alex Redington
Mabelle Park
Iohan Coman
Kynan Walker
Elfida Su Turan
Olwen Miles

Second violin
Ying Xue
Ezo Dem Sarici
Greta Maknickaite
Ziyang Xiao
Laura Kim
Jennifer Clare

Viola
Hélène Clément
Jamie Howe
Emily Clark
Beatrice Slocumbe
Howard Chiu

Cello
John Myerscough
Goncalo Oliveira Pires
Asja Mosconi
Owen Graham
Niccolo Citrani

Double bass
Charis Hadjisophocleous
Nicholas Broughton