Biographies

Ben Hancox, Hannah Dawson, Robin Ashwell, Cara Berridge

Since its formation at the Royal College of Music in 2001, the Sacconi Quartet has established a secure and substantial reputation. The Quartet is recognised for its unanimous and compelling ensemble, performing with style and commitment and consistently communicating with a fresh and imaginative approach. Its four founder members demonstrate a shared passion for string quartet repertoire, infectiously reaching out to audiences with their energy and enthusiasm. Over the past decade they have enjoyed a highly successful international career, performing regularly throughout Europe, at London’s major venues, in recordings and radio broadcasts. The Sacconi is Quartet in Association at the Royal College of Music and Quartet in Residence at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre.

The Sacconi Quartet is renowned for its vigorous and individual approach to music-making. In 2008, the Quartet held the inaugural Sacconi Chamber Music Festival in Folkestone, Kent. Now in its fifth year, the festival is an established event in the cultural calendar and is expanding year on year with challenging programming and exciting collaborations. The Sacconi Quartet has performed at all the major London venues including Wigmore Hall, Kings Place, Cadogan Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and Conway Hall. They have travelled extensively throughout the rest of the UK and Europe to venues including Bridgewater Hall in Manchester, The Queens Hall in Edinburgh, Musikverein in Vienna, Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam, L'Auditori in Barcelona and Auditorio Nacional de Música in Madrid as well as many venues in Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, France, Finland, Norway and the Czech Republic. In 2008 the Sacconi made their debut at the Liceo de Cámara Madrid, and in 2009 at the Concerts du Midi, Brussels and the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in Germany. The Quartet also made their first visit to the Middle East in 2009, where they were invited by the British Council to give concerts and workshops in Jordan’s capital city, Amman.

Highlights of their current 10th anniversary season have so far included a tour to Germany in the autumn and the completion their second major project at Kings Place in September, performing the great Piano Quintets over two years with pianist Simon Crawford-Phillips. The Sacconi performed their 10th birthday celebratory concert at Kings Place in January 2012 to a sold out hall. Recently, the Quartet made its debuts at the Cheltenham Festival, the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, and the Queens Hall, Edinburgh, and returned to perform at the Wigmore Hall. BBC Radio 3 broadcast one of the Sacconi’s concerts from the Music in May Festival in St Ives and their new Czech disc has been featured on BBC Radio 3 and Classic FM. To date the Quartet has given fifteen world premières and three British premières, including quartets by György Kurtág, Robin Holloway, Paul Patterson, John McCabe, Timothy Salter, John Metcalf and Alun Hoddinot, and recently they performed as the solo string quartet on Paul McCartney’s new song Come Home. The Sacconi Quartet has been mentored by eminent musicians, including Gabor Takács-Nagy, Christopher Rowland and Levon Chilingirian, and has been joined on stage by Ian Brown, Raphael Wallfisch, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Martin Roscoe, David Campbell, Lawrence Power, Robert Cohen, Guy Johnston, Alasdair Beatson, Tom Poster, Matthew Rose and actor Timothy West.

Firm believers in the importance of bringing chamber music to the next generation, the Sacconi Quartet dedicates much passion, time and energy to education work. They regularly lead workshops and give schools and family concerts as part of the Sacconi Chamber Music Festival outreach programme and the CAVATINA Chamber Music Trust.

The Sacconi won First Prize at the Trondheim International String Quartet Competition and the Kurtág Prize at the Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition in 2005, as well as First Prize in the Royal Over-Seas League Chamber Music Competition. The Quartet won Second Prize, the Sidney Griller Award and the Esterhazy Prize at the 2006 London International String Quartet Competition. In 2006 they were also selected for representation by Young Concert Artists Trust (YCAT), awarded an Angel Award by The Herald newspaper for outstanding performances in the Edinburgh Festival and nominated for a Royal Philharmonic Society Award.

The Sacconi Quartet has its own, highly successful, record label. Sacconi Records is expanding by one or two releases each year. In 2011 a disc of Czech quartets was released which has received widespread critical acclaim, been broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and was tipped as a classical chart 'Hot Shot' by Classic FM. Their debut recording of Haydn’s opus 54 quartets was praised in the press and both the Ravel and Haydn discs were featured in The Full Works programme on Classic FM. Their 2006 recording of Finzi’s song cycle By Footpath and Stile with baritone Roderick Williams for Naxos was well received in all the national broadsheets and BBC Music Magazine.

The name Sacconi Quartet comes from the outstanding twentieth-century Italian luthier and restorer Simone Sacconi, whose book The Secrets of Stradivari is considered an indispensable reference for violin makers. Hancox plays an 18th century Italian violin on loan from an anonymous owner, and Dawson an unknown Italian from 1750.  Ashwell plays a large Sacconi viola made in New York in 1934 and Berridge a Nicolaus Gagliano cello from 1781, both generously on loan to them. Berridge wishes to thank the Royal Society of Musicians, a charity which helps musicians in need, for the use of the cello.

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JANUARY 2011