2025 Highlights!

SEASON’S GREETINGS FROM THE CARDUCCI QUARTET!

2025 HIGHLIGHTS

We have had a year of unforgettable highs and one very memorable low, when Matt was unexpectedly hospitalised with double pneumonia. We’re happy to say he’s made a full recovery and is back to full strength.

We celebrated the 50th anniversary of Shostakovich’s death, with a special series at the Barbican and a cycle at Bantry House, Ireland. Other highlights included recording music for a new production of Hamlet at the National Theatre, premiering a new quartet by Daniel Kidane at the Aldeburgh Festival, sold-out concerts at Kings Place with Voces8, and a wonderful tour and recording (out next year) with Roderick Williams.

Taking the instruments home!

In April, we travelled to Cremona, Italy — taking our instruments home to the city where they were crafted centuries ago, and performing in the breathtaking auditorium at the heart of the Stradivarius Museum.

Schools and compositions

We have very much enjoyed continuing our residency at the RWCMD this year – working with the talented string players there and visiting many schools in the Cardiff area. This Autumn, we performed for around 1,200 primary school children!

To work with GCSE and A level students, and in support of our Young Composers competition, we also visited five secondary schools, with more scheduled in the New Year. It has been inspiring to see such creativity among the students, and we look forward to receiving a bumper crop of entries in the spring.

Celebrations and thanks

In 2026, we look forward to celebrating major milestone birthdays for Philip Glass and Steve Reich, marking our own 20th Festival at Highnam, and making our debut at Ronnie Scott’s. We’re also delighted to be returning to both the Aldeburgh and Gower Festivals.

Throughout the year, we’ll be placing a special focus on the piano, including the premiere of a new piano quintet by Ninfea Crutwell-Reade at Wigmore Hall in June.

We will also continue our education work, which remains at the heart of what we do. Bringing live music into schools is something we are deeply passionate about, and we see with every visit the profound and lasting impact it has on young people.

Finally, we want to thank you all for your continued support. It is always a joy to see friendly faces in audiences across the country, and we are enormously grateful to each and every one of you!

Wishing you peace, joy, and good health in the New Year,

Matt, Michelle, Eoin & Emma

For more information about becoming a Friend or Patron of the Carducci String Quartet please visit:

Carducci Music Trust

Shostakovich this autumn

This autumn we’re delighted to have several chances to continue exploring and celebrating the extraordinary music of Shostakovich.

✨ Cowbridge Music Festival – 13 September
✨ Sarratt Festival of Music – 20 September
We join forces with wonderful collaborators for Shostakovich’s dramatic and much-loved Piano Quintet.

Bantry House, Ireland – 24–26 October
A very special weekend, performing the complete cycle of all 15 Shostakovich quartets in the unique and atmospheric setting of Bantry House.
https://www.westcorkmusic.ie/concert-series/shostakovich/

Holywell Music Room, Oxford – 8 November
Continuing our Shostakovich journey in Oxford – an opportunity to hear quartets 8, 10 and 2 in the intimacy of the Holywell Room.
https://oxfordphil.com/event/shostakovich-celebration-2/

Chichester Chamber Concerts – 4 December – Quartets 10, 8, 2
https://www.chichesterchamberconcerts.com/4th-december-2025

Nicholas Yonge Society – Lewes – 5 December – Quartets 10, 8, 2
https://www.nyslewes.org.uk/

Hope to see you along the way!

For full concert listings click https://carducciquartet.com/schedule/

A New Perspective on Die schöne Müllerin

This autumn, we’re excited to be hitting the road with the wonderful Roderick Williams, performing his own arrangement of Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin for voice and string quartet.

We’ve worked with Roddy on several projects over the years, and each collaboration brings something truly special. This one feels particularly close to our hearts. His reimagining of Die schöne Müllerin offers a fresh lens on a piece we’ve all known and loved for years—transforming the familiar piano textures into an expressive string quartet landscape.

The result is an intimate and immediate experience, both for us as performers and, we hope, for the audience. Rather than the quartet simply replacing the piano, Roddy’s arrangement invites a real dialogue between the voice and strings. It’s been a joy to explore the emotional world of the miller together—sharing in the innocence, longing, heartbreak, and beauty that run through the cycle.

We’ll be touring the programme this autumn with dates around the UK and beyond, and we can’t wait to share it with you.

Upcoming Dates:

    •    Fairford – 23rd Sept
    •    St Martin-In-the-Fields – 25th Sept
    •    Milngavie – 26th Sept
    •    Wiltshire Music Centre – 28th Sept
    •    York – 1st Oct
    •    Cumnock Tryst – 3rd Oct
    •    Gent (Belgium) – 5th Oct
    •    Shrewsbury – 10th Oct
    •    Oxford – 20th Oct

On the Road!  – June 2025

Summer’s warming up, and so is our concert calendar! If you’re a fan of intimate, expressive chamber music, June is a perfect time to catch us live. From charming market towns to major concert halls – we’re performing a great range of repertoire across England.

Here’s a look at where we’re headed:

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Kicking Things Off in the Yorkshire Dales

June 3 – Swaledale Festival, Richmond
The month starts with a scenic stop at the Swaledale Festival in North Yorkshire, where we’ll be performing Ravel, Schubert, and Caroline Shaw’s Entr’acte. If you’ve never heard Shaw’s work live, it’s a total treat—contemporary and mesmerizing.

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A Weekend by the Sea

June 9–11 – Kirker Music Festival, Eastbourne
Next we head south to Eastbourne’s elegant Grand Hotel for a few days of music by Haydn, Beethoven, Dvořák, and others. Think sea breezes and string quartets—hard to beat!

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Sunday Morning Music in London

June 15 – Wigmore Hall, London
Back in the capital, catch us mid-month for a Sunday morning concert at Wigmore Hall. On the menu: Schubert’s youthful E-flat quartet and Dvořák’s much-loved “American” quartet. It’s the kind of programme that will hopefully leave you floating out into the day!

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Summer Sounds in the Wye Valley

June 22 – Ross-on-Wye
Later in the month, we are in Ross-on-Wye at the lovely St Mary’s Parish Church. This concert includes music by Hubert Parry—fitting, since our festival just down the road, is in Parry’s home village and church in Highnam.

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A Big Finish at Aldeburgh!

June 25 – Aldeburgh Festival, Snape Maltings
To close out the month, we land at the iconic Aldeburgh Festival. The programme features Beethoven’s stormy ‘Serioso’, Shostakovich’s intense 12th quartet, and a brand new work by composer Daniel Kidane. There’s even a pre-concert talk if you like to dig into the music beforehand. 

More details at : https://carducciquartet.com/schedule/

Shostakovich at the Barbican!

Marking 50 years since the composer’s death, we are excited to be performing a five-concert odyssey through the complete string quartets – works that enshrine Shostakovich’s inner life, loves and closest friendships.

Concert 1 – Jan 29th
Concert 2 – Feb 28th
Concert 3 – March 27th
Concert 4 – April 29th
Concert 5 – May 29th

More info here: https://www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/2025/series/shostakovich-quartets-intimate-portraits

New Residency @ RWCMD

We’re excited to have started a new residency! The Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama (supported by The Albert and Eugenie Frost Music Trust, with additional funding from the Colwinston Charitable Trust) has launched a bold and transformative two-year string quartet residency for 2 string quartets – The Carduccis and the Fibonacci Quartet.
This innovative program places world-class string quartet practice at the core of the College’s vibrant community, aiming to influence the future of string playing across Wales and beyond.

Summer Festival Highlights and Exciting Plans Ahead!

Our 18th Carducci Festival at Highnam centred around the piano and we were thrilled to welcome our wonderful pianist friends and collaborators, Lara Melda and Katya Apekisheva. We also worked with the incredible Sean Shibe for the first time, performing together at the Bath Festival before heading to Helsinki for the Lauttasaari Music Festival.

Other memorable highlights included revisiting our Shostakovich Letters programme with the brilliant Anton Lesser at the Chiltern Arts Festival, joining our good friend Craig Ogden at the Dean & Chadlington Summer Festival, and sharing the stage with Dame Sheila Hancock at the Ryedale Festival, where she reflected on her life through music.

Our final stop of the summer was the Kilkenny Arts Festival in Ireland and it was a joy to return and reconnect with so many familiar faces. Performing the iconic Different Trains at the Set Theatre on our last night was an unforgettable experience.

Looking ahead, we have a busy Autumn season including performances at the Leicester and Two Moors Festivals, Dartington, Kings Place, and the Wigmore Hall. We’re also preparing for some exciting projects to mark the 50th anniversary of Shostakovich’s death in 2025. Watch this space!

Looking back at 2023!

Felix & Fanny in concert – RPS Enterprise Fund

A concert version of the play by Myla Lichtman-Fields
World Premiere
We are thrilled to be premiering this new work at the Barbican on November 24th 2022. The music and words programme shines a spotlight on the complex relationship between the Mendelssohn siblings and provides an insight into the struggles of a female musician in the C19th.
Fanny’s music is placed firmly centre stage, as letters between the siblings, adapted into a two-person play by Maya Lichtman-Fields, interweave the movements of her expressive String Quartet and a selection from her ground-breaking Das Jahr (arranged especially for the project by Emma Denton).
https://www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/2022/event/carducci-quartet-fanny-and-felix

Royal Philharmonic Society Enterprise Fund in association with Harriet’s Trust.
During the pandemic, Emma had time to fulfil a long term dream of hers; to devise a music and words programme based on Shostakovich’s string quartets. The Carducci Quartet were thrilled to premiere the resulting ‘Shostakovich: Life, Letters & Friendship’ at the Barbican last autumn with the incredible actor and director Samuel West.
The quartet were also thrilled to be recipients of the RPS Enterprise Fund which enabled them to expand on the music and words programme and to bring the Felix and Fanny project to fruition.

Collaborations
The pandemic led us to connect digitally with audiences and fellow musicians alike. We formed some wonderful and ‘remote’ collaborations:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GmLN5G3eyuM
and connected with the incredible playwright/screenwriter, Myla Lichtman-Fields. Her vision and generosity in reworking her play ‘Felix & Fanny’ for this project enabled it to come to fruition and we can’t wait to finally meet her in person at the premiere!

Shostakovich: Life, Letters & Friendship