Biographies
Ben Hancox, Hannah Dawson, Robin Ashwell, Cara Berridge
Formed in 2001 at the Royal College of Music, the Sacconi Quartet is rapidly gaining an enviable reputation as one of the outstanding quartets of their generation. The Quartet won 2nd Prize at the 2006 London International String Quartet Competition, along with the Esterhazy Prize & Sydney Griller Award, following their 1st Prize win in the 2005 Trondheim International String Quartet Competition. They also won the Kurtág Prize at the Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition, 1st Prize in the Royal Over-Seas League chamber music competition and were shortlisted for a Royal Philharmonic Society award. In 2006 the Quartet was selected for representation by Young Concert Artists Trust (YCAT), and the same year was awarded an Angel Award by The Herald newspaper for outstanding performances in the Edinburgh Festival.
Engagements last season included return visits to Wigmore Hall, concerts at Cadogan Hall, St. George’s Bristol, the Canterbury, Bangor New Music, Bury St. Edmunds, Winchester and Lichfeld Festivals. Abroad the Quartet has appeared at the Holland Festival in Amsterdam, the St. Olav Festival in Trondheim, Norway and given recitals in Geneva, Barcelona, Germany and France. They have collaborated with many of today’s leading chamber musicians in quintet, sextet and octet concerts, and will tour the UK during 2008-9 with the Navarra Quartet on Music in the Round’s Around the Country series.
This season, plans include a series of concerts in Switzerland and debut recitals in the Musikverein in Vienna and the Liceo da Cámara series in Madrid. The Quartet will also tour throughout the UK with Acoustic Triangle, the renowned classical-jazz trio, performing written and improvised music in some of the country’s most spectacular cathedrals and abbeys.
The inaugural Sacconi Chamber Music Festival at Folkestone will take place on 2nd-4th May 2008, during which the quartet will give a weekend of recitals alongside a wide-ranging programme of outreach work, taking concerts into schools, prisons, residential care homes and centres for refugees and asylum seekers.
The Quartet’s recording of Finzi’s song cycle By Footpath and Stile with baritone Roderick Williams was released on Naxos in 2006 and received four- and five-star reviews in all the national broadsheets and BBC Music Magazine. In 2007 the Quartet gave the world premiere of John Metcalf’s first string quartet, and in 2008 they will premiere Robin Holloway’s String Quartet No.2 in Madrid and Brancaster.
The Sacconi Quartet is a member of the Royal College of Music’s New Generation Scheme, supported by the Worshipful Company of Musicians. They pursue a keen interest in education work, collaborating with the Cavatina Chamber Music Trust and others, making regular visits to schools, hospitals and community venues.
The Quartet has an active Friends and Patrons network, and always welcomes new members. For all details, please see www.sacconi.com.
The name Sacconi Quartet comes from 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.
FEBRUARY 2008