News from the VQ: Canadian violinist Katie Stillman will be joining the Villiers Quartet as our new first violinist. We are hugely excited to welcome Katie to the VQ Family! Katie has a vibrant career as a chamber musician, soloist and orchestral leader. She was a founding member of the Barbirolli Quartet which performed extensively throughout Europe. With her duo partner, […]
Read more
It’s not often that string quartets get the opportunity to release multiple recordings in the same month, which is why we were so excited for March 2020. We were due to release two discs: William Alwyn: String Quartets No. 6,7,8,9 on Lyrita; and our first non-classical music collaboration Spiders Tango on Keda Records. As we […]
Read more
MusicWeb International, February 2020 “conspicuously sensitive performances that respond to every facet of the composer’s writing” Alwyn admirers have reason to be grateful to Lyrita, as it continues to expand the composer’s discography despite the more recent participation of other labels such as Chandos and Naxos. The triumphant recent revival of Miss Julie must remind […]
Read more
As the harmonic to the sounding string Soft, tender, pure, remote, yet from within Heard when the soul is like a well-tuned violin Thus you have power within my life to sing. -From “The Spirit of Love” songs for String Quartet and Soprano, by Ailsa Dixon The opening words to the first song […]
Read more
World premiere of Ailsa Dixon’s The Spirit of Love – February 20, 2020, 13:00 – St George’s Bristol The VQ is showcasing the British composer Ailsa Dixon’s chamber music works in upcoming appearance at St George’s Bristol. Among the many women composers side-lined in musical history who are becoming the focus of new interest, Ailsa […]
Read more
After a successful world premiere of Alexander Goehr’s String Quartet no.5 “Vision of the Soldier Er” at the Swaledale Festival in June 2019, the VQ took on a challenging programme of performing the complete string quartets by Goehr at the renowned Music@Malling Festival in September 2019. A pupil of Olivier Messiaen in the 1950’s […]
Read more
In March 2020, we will release our seventh CD recording of Willian Alwyn String Quartets from respected Lyrita label. Alwyn composed a total of sixteen string quartets. The String Quartets no.6,7,8,9 as well as Seven Irish Tunes were composed in the early period of his prolific career. These early quartets are in many ways a […]
Read more
We are pleased to announce that we will be joining forces with the Jacqueline du Pré Music Building (JdP) at St. Hilda’s College, Oxford University, as their new Ensemble-in-Residence. We will be featured in a series of performances as part of the JdP Concert Series. The first concert of our residency takes place on 16th […]
Read more
We are pleased to announce that we are recipients of our first Arts Council England National Lottery Project Grant. Working in partnership with the award-winning theatre company MishMash Productions, we are developing a new programme to perform classical chamber music for young audiences. We are excited for this new phase in our development and look […]
Read more
The Villiers Quartet are pleased to announce the Fall release of their new CD: The Chamber Music of William Sterndale Bennett, collaborating UK’s finest chamber musicians Jeremy Young and Leon Bosch. “We may well now find cause to regret, listening to the free spirited and often impassioned voice to be heard throughout this album, that […]
Read more
