Chilingirian String Quartet

About

Official Site: http://www.carolinebairdartists.co.uk/html/chilingirian-1.htm

The Quartet was founded in 1971 by Levon Chilingirian and Philip De Groote. Whilst each member is a virtuoso musician, their success as a quartet has earned them the Royal Philharmonic Society’s coveted Chamber Ensemble Award. The Chilingirian is Quartet-in- Residence at the Royal College of Music in London, resident ensemble at the Lake District Summer Music Festival and in 2005 has a residency at the University of California at Irvine. Places on the Chilingirian's annual chamber music course run at West Dean in England are eagerly sought by aspiring young professional and amateur ensembles.

European engagements have included major festivals such as the Edinburgh, Aldeburgh and Tivoli festivals and prestigious series at The Barbican Centre, Wigmore Hall, Concertgebouw, Munich Herkulessaal, Zurich Tonhalle, Stockholm Konserthuset and Vienna Konzerthaus. The Quartet tours North America every season and has performed extensively in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Asia, Africa and South America.

The Chilingirian Quartet, sought after for their insight and imagination, has given many world premieres - most recently Michael Berkeley’s cello quintet Abstract Mirrors and Hugh Wood’s Serenade and Elegy - and has a special relationship with the music of Sir Michael Tippett, all of whose quartets it performs regularly. Last season they gave performances, to mark the composer’s centenary, of the Tippett Triple Concerto with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, a work they have recorded with Richard Hickox.

Currently recording for the UK’s top independent record labels, Hyperion and Chandos, the Chilingirian’s extensive discography includes the Bartok and Dvorak cycles. Recent releases include a 4 CD series of Chausson works, and a 3 CD set of string quartets of Sir John Blackwood McEwan as well as an award-winning disc of piano quintets by Renaldo Hahn and Louis Vierne. This spring Chandos Records released their new recording of Michael Berkeley's Quartet 'Magnetic Field' and Quintet 'Abstract Mirrors'. The Quartet recently embarked on a project of DVDs of all the Beethoven Quartets and has recorded the six Mozart string quintets for CRD Records for release later this year. Regular broadcasts throughout Europe and North America complement the Quartet's work for the BBC.

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