Photo credit Bertie Watson

Praised for their “cultured tone” (Arts Desk), the Solem Quartet has established itself as one of the most innovative and adventurous quartets of its generation. A 2020 awardee of the Jerwood Arts Live Work Fund, one of 33 artists selected from more than 1200 applicants, the Solem Quartet takes its place amongst some of the UK’s brightest artistic voices, with award recipients spread across practices including music, theatre, opera, circus, dance, live art and performance. Formed in 2011 at the University of Manchester, The Solem Quartet takes its name from the university’s motto “arduus ad solem”, meaning “striving towards the sun”.

The quartet enjoys a busy concert schedule performing at venues both across the UK – including Wigmore Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Bridgewater Hall and Holywell Music Room – and internationally. In keeping with its name, the Solem Quartet’s first project was to play the Haydn Op. 20 “Sun” Quartets. Their repertoire is extensive, spanning the period from early Haydn to a broad spectrum of living composers including Larry Goves, Anna Meredith, John Luther Adams and Emily Howard, whose quartet ‘Afference’ they performed in a BBC Proms Extra broadcast, live on BBC Radio 3.

Since September 2016 the quartet has been ‘Quartet in Residence’ at the University of Liverpool, and was also recently appointed ‘Ensemble in Residence’ at Aberystwyth MusicFest. They were selected as Tunnell Trust Artists in 2016, leading to a tour of Scotland in 2018.

The programme for this concert is:
Schumann Three Romances for violin and piano, op.22, arr. Amy Tress
Bartók String Quartet no. 4, BB 95
Mendelssohn String Quartet no. 5 in E flat major, op. 44, no. 3

https://www.solemquartet.co.uk/

The Solem Quartet are violinist Amy Tress, violinist William Newell, violist Stephen Upshaw and cellist Stephanie Tress.