Solem Quartet

Beethoven - String Quartet, op 59 no 2 ‘Razumovsky’

Winners of the 2014 Royal Overseas League Ensemble Competition, the Solem Quartet were brought together in 2011 by their studies at the University of Manchester, where they take their name from the University motto “arduus ad solem", meaning “striving towards the sun”.

The quartet enjoy a busy concert schedule at venues across the UK including Wigmore Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Bridgewater Hall and Holywell Music Room, as well as performing internationally in several European countries. As an acknowledgement to their name, the Solem Quartet began by learning Haydn's op 20 "Sun" Quartets. Now their repertoire expands widely from early Haydn to living composers such as Emily Howard, whose quartet ‘Afference’ they recently performed in a BBC Proms Extra broadcast live on BBC Radio 3. They have recorded two CDs of 20th Century British music for Divine Arts record company. They are 2016/17 Park Lane Group Artists and have given recitals at Kings Place, St John's, Smith Square and St Martin-in-the-fields in this year as part of the PLG recital series. In 2016 they were also selected as Tunnell Trust Artists, through which they will be touring Scotland in 2018.

The quartet recently completed the Junior Fellowship in Chamber Music at the RNCM 2015-17 (generously supported by the Albert and Eugenie Frost Music Trust), giving regular coaching to chamber ensembles as well as a series of concerts throughout the year. As part of their work with Live Music Now, they also give concerts and workshops in a number of special needs schools around Manchester.

Since September 2016 they have held the position of Quartet in Residence at the University of Liverpool. They were also recently appointed Ensemble in Residence at Aberystwyth MusicFest. They have been privately commissioned to undertake a complete Beethoven cycle, to take place over five years starting in 2017, in London and Aberystwyth.

Admission Free

Clothworkers Centenary Concert Hall, School of Music, University of Leeds