BBC Radio 3 | The Listening Service, 3 March 2024

Rethink music with The Listening Service. Tom Service presents a journey of imagination and insight, exploring how music works.

Impassioned Argument: Elizabeth Maconchy's String Quartets

"For me, the best music is an impassioned argument". So said one of Britain's greatest 20th-century composers, Elizabeth Maconchy.

Who?? Despite her many awards and medals - including a damehood in 1987 - and a lifetime spent promoting new music, Elizabeth's work slipped out of fashion and out of view in the latter part of her remarkable career. With concertos and symphonies, vocal music, chamber works, five operas, an operetta and three ballets to her name, Elizabeth's voice is that of economy, elegance and rich expression. And it is in her century-spanning 13 string quartets that her development - and musical outlook - as an artist are most closely expressed.

With a cultural resurgence in all things mid-century, Tom Service chats to Janell Yeo of the Bloomsbury Quartet and considers whether the time is now ripe for a reclamation of Elizabeth's place at our musical top table."

Listen on BBC Sounds: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001wqnh

Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2CQ5k1BfJXUANet6PE0tPk?si=dada7cefcd314523

Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/impassioned-argument-elizabeth-maconchys-string-quartets/id1108468608?i=1000647840884

Craven Herald article (16 February 2023)

“Celebration of female composers continues with The Bloomsbury Quartet”

By Lesley Tate, published online at https://www.cravenherald.co.uk/news/23306953.celebration-female-composers-continues-bloomsbury-quartet/

SKIPTON Music’s 75th anniversary season celebrating women composers continues with the Bloomsbury Quartet, featuring the music of Dame Elizabeth Violet Maconchy LeFanu.

As a former Wigmore Hall/Open Academy Fellowship Ensemble, the Bloomsbury Quartet, comprising violinists Eva de Vries and Janell Yeo, violist Rachel Maxey and cellist Felicity Smith, is passionate about engaging audiences with thought-provoking programmes.

A Skipton Music spokesperson said: “We are very excited to be bringing this unique ‘concert experience’ that combines performance ‘in the round’ with a multimedia exhibition on the life and works of one of the finest composers the British Isles have ever produced.”

The concert features an early and late string quartet as well as music by Maconchy’s teacher Ralph Vaughan Williams, her daughter Nicola LeFanu and Leoš Janáček, a key influence during the composer’s later studies in Prague.

Tickets for the concert on Tuesday, February 21 at Skipton Town Hall online, in person or by phone from Skipton Town Hall Box Office: Tel: 01756 792809; Skipton Information and Visitor Centre Skipton Town Hall. General admission £25; under 30 £10; under 19 £2. Under 18s must be accompanied by an adult.

The performance starts at 7.30pm, and the bar will be open for pre-concert drinks from 6.30pm.

For this concert the Bloomsbury Quartet will be taking advantage of the flexibility of the new Town Hall facilities to use a slightly different layout: the space where you would normally find the stage will be used for the exhibition, and the quartet will perform at ground floor level (at the foot of the raked seating) with the ground floor seating turned to face the raked seating.

For full details of the music to be performed at the concert, or to see future events with Skipton Music, visit www.skiptonmusic.org.uk

For more information about the artists and their programme visit www.bloomsburyquartet.com

Yorkshire Times article (16 February 2023)

“Skipton Music Preview: Bloomsbury Quartet”

Skipton Music’s 75th anniversary season celebrating women composers continues on Tuesday 21 February with the Bloomsbury Quartet and features the music of Dame Elizabeth Maconchy, one of the finest composers the British Isles have ever produced.

As a former Wigmore Hall/Open Academy Fellowship Ensemble, the Bloomsbury Quartet, comprising violinists Eva de Vries and Janell Yeo, violist Rachel Maxey and cellist Felicity Smith, is passionate about engaging audiences with thought-provoking programmes.

For this concert they will be taking advantage of the flexibility of the new Town Hall facilities to use a different layout: the space where you would normally find the stage will be used for a pre-concert multimedia exhibition on the life and works of Elizabeth Maconchy, and the quartet will perform 'in the round' at ground floor level, with the ground floor seating facing backwards and the string quartet between the front seats and the raked seating. All ground-floor seat numbers remain the same with Row AA at the front and GG at the back.

The concert begins and ends with an early and late quartet, and in between features quartets by two of the major influences on her work - Ralph Vaughan Williams and Leos Janacek - and by her daughter Nicola Lefanu.

A Skipton Music spokesperson said:
“We are very excited to be bringing this unique concert experience to Skipton, and invite our audience to come early to sample the installation and meet members of the quartet.”

Tickets available online at
https://skiptontownhall.co.uk/whats-on/skipton-music-presents-bloomsbury-quartet/
in person or by phone from Skipton Town Hall Box Office: Tel: 01756 792809, Skipton Information & Visitor Centre, Skipton Town Hall, High Street, Skipton, BD23 1AH

General admission £25/Under 30 £10/Under 19 £2. Under 18s must be accompanied by an adult.

The performance starts at 7.30pm, and the bar will be open for pre-concert drinks from 6.30pm.

For full details of the music to be performed at this concert, see skiptonmusic.org.uk

Autumn 2019 Newsletter

Welcome back to another year of great music and great fellowship!

After a jam-packed year, we took a well-deserved break, but not before performing on the Wigmore stage with Maconchy, Schulhoff and the world premiere of Daniel Fardon's 'Six Movements' written just for us!
If you missed it, Click Here to relive each moment with us on Youtube!

Now we're back and ready to rumble this season!

Following on from the preview show at Brasenose College (Oxford) and tour launch at Stroud Green Festival, ReCentred | Elizabeth Maconchy is still going strong - in fact it's happening again THIS SATURDAY in Romsey Abbey!

Scroll down for full details, watch our new trailer for the ReCentred experience, AND MORE!

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NEWSFLASH - This Saturday 19 October 2019:
Romsey Abbey is next on our ReCentred | Elizabeth Maconchy tour!

We're looking forward to being a part of their 2019 Ethelflaeda Festival, celebrating women and music in the majestic abbey.

Here's just some of the amazing audience feedback from our tour launch at Stroud Green Festival back in June:
"Surpassed expectations...Very exciting, dramatic and full of feeling"
"LOVED IT. Came open-minded, left delighted!"
"Perfect nuance...players as one voice"
Doors open at 7pm, tickets only £10 each - get them HERE!
For a sneak peek of what to expect, watch our tour trailer:

Special thanks go to the following for their invaluable support of this project:
Ambache Trust
RVW Trust
Clare Norburn & Stroud Green Festival
Nicola LeFanu
DONNE Women in Music
Vaughan Williams Charitable Trust
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Other upcoming concerts this Autumn/Winter:

Sunday 24 November: Relaxed Concert for Vi & John Rubens House
A private performance specially for the residents of Jewish Care Vi & John Rubens, as part of Wigmore Hall's Music for Life residency.
Luke Newby, 2018-19 Wigmore Hall Trainee Music Leader, will be presenting the session.

Wednesday 4 December: Coventry University Lunchtime Concert
Room 101, Ellen Terry Arts & Media Building
Jordan Well, Coventry
CV1 5RW

1:10pm - 2pm | FREE ENTRY

The acclaimed Bloomsbury Quartet presents a diverse and exciting programme, including a work composed especially for the quartet by Coventry-based composer Daniel Fardon. The world premiere was performed at Wigmore Hall in July 2019, as the culmination of both the quartet’s year-long Fellowship and Fardon’s time as Apprentice Composer.

Programme:
Daniel Fardon - Six Movements for String Quartet
Leos Janacek - String Quartet No.2 ‘Intimate Letters’

Friday 6 December: Goodenough Residency - Inaugural Concert Large Common Room, London House,
Goodenough College, Mecklenburgh Square
London WC1N 2AB

7pm - 9pm | FREE ENTRY

To celebrate the appointment of the Bloomsbury Quartet as Goodenough College’s first Ensemble-in-Residence. Drinks reception to follow the performance.
Programme:

Britten - Alla Marcia
Ravel - String Quartet No.2
Maconchy - String Quartet No.11

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As always, we love meeting you at our events and hearing your feedback, so do be sure to come along, say hello, and bring your friends as well!

Follow us on social media (click the icons below) and check you're subscribed to this newsletter for all the latest Bloomsbury news and updates!

Until next time!
Love,
Bloomsbury Quartet x

Summer 2019 Newsletter

Welcome to the Summer instalment of our Newsletter!

Spring was a real whirlwind - as St Martin's Chamber Competition Finalists, we performed TWICE at the prestigious St Martin-in-the-Fields in Trafalgar Square, and were announced as 2019/2020 Selected Artists for Making Music (learn more HERE)

In addition, we performed two Guest Ensemble concerts at the Romsey Chamber Music Festival AND a preview of our upcoming tour at Rachel's alma mater, Brasenose College (University of Oxford), not to mention the countless participatory and educational workshops all over London as this year's Wigmore Hall Fellowship Ensemble.

This summer, join us as we wrap up our 2018/19 season on a high -
with an appearance on BBC Radio 3's In Tune to announce the launch of our 2019/20 UK tour ReCentred at Stroud Green Festival, and a world premiere in our final Wigmore Hall concert!

ReCentred | Elizabeth Maconchy

Our brand-new show which will tour around the UK in 2019/2020, ReCentred puts female composers into the centre of their own narrative. Women composers are often lumped together for no reason except their gender, or alongside a more famous male counterpart (a father, brother, teacher, husband, or lover).
This first instalment of the series aims to introduce the prolific string quartet composer Dame Elizabeth Maconchy (1907-1994) and her circle to a wider audience.

Maconchy's early (Quartet No.1) and late (Quartet No.11) quartets will bookend music by her teacher Vaughan Williams (Quartet No.2) and daughter Nicola LeFanu (Quartet No.2). Plus Maconchy's writings, projected photographs, and the quartet performing centrally, surrounded by the audience.
A pre-concert multimedia installation event will introduce Maconchy, using film and photography; the audience can wander around and interact with musicians and listen to examples of her music.

As the Ensemble-in-Residence, we're launching ReCentred at the Stroud Green Festival on Friday 21 June 2019, 7:45-9:45pm! (Tickets £10/£7, get them HERE)
To officially announce our tour, we will be making an appearance on BBC Radio 3's In Tune programme on Monday 10 June 2019 between 6:15-7pm. We're excited to chat about ReCentred and other topics, and play some of our favourite music live for the nation and beyond! Click HERE to listen live, it will be available up to 30 days after broadcast.

Let us know if you're able to catch us on radio or live at Stroud Green Festival! More dates for ReCentred will be announced in due course, so watch this space...
Our endless gratitude goes to Clare Norburn, Artistic Director and multi-talented tour de force, for believing in and supporting us in this crazy journey, when ReCentred was just a glimmer in our eyes!
Special thanks also goes to the Ambache Charitable Trust for their support.

Wigmore Fellowship 2018-19

We've had a blast being this year's Wigmore Hall Fellowship Ensemble! It's been really relentless, but 100% absolutely worthwhile to look back and think of how many people we have impacted through our music...
All over London and beyond, we got the opportunity to make music for babies & toddlers, encourage creativity in students, communicate with children who are blind or have autism, bring relief to children in hospital, support family days, and enrich the lives of people touched by dementia.

As we also took part in Wigmore's Learning Festival, this gave us the chance to work with Daniel Fardon, Wigmore Hall/RPS Rosie Johnson Apprentice Composer, recording his Three Garden Sketches for String Trio. Read about our collaboration and other musings by Daniel in a blog post for the RPS HERE!

Come join us for the final two public performances of our Fellowship:

Saturday 15 June 2019, 11am - Relaxed Concert (£5, tickets HERE)
Based on a theme of dances, open to all ages and needs
Watch our promo video popping up on Facebook & Twitter!

Wednesday 17 July 2019, 5:30pm - Early Evening concert (Free, tickets HERE)
Programme: Maconchy, Schulhoff and the WORLD PREMIERE of Daniel Fardon's piece, written specially for us!

Thanks for reading, and hope to see you soon - don't hesitate to come say hello to us, and bring your friends along too! - Janell

Bloomsbury Quartet x

2019-20 Selected Artists | Making Music UK

As of May 2019, we are officially in the 2019-20 Selected Artists Guide published by Making Music UK!

Here is a little more information about what this all means:

What is Making Music and what do we do?

Since 1935, Making Music has supported and championed leisure-time music groups across the UK with practical services, artistic development opportunities and by providing a collective voice for its members.

Representing over 3,500 groups of around 190,000 musicians of all types, genres and abilities, Making Music helps them with the practicalities of running their group so they can get on with making music.

What is the Selected Artists Guide and who are the Selected Artists?

Every year, Making Music’s Selected Artists Panel of expert promoters handpicks a number of established professional musicians and ensembles to be included in the Selected Artists Guide. Promoters and performing groups alike who are looking for soloists or groups can discover excellent, affordable artists in the guide. Making Music members can book the listed artists at a subsidised fee, providing exposure and bookings to professional artists at affordable rates for leisure-time music groups.

The Selected Artists are professionals chosen by Making Music’s panel for their ability to provide the best concert experience with jazz, folk artists, and organists selected by the National Youth Jazz Orchestra, English Folk Dance and Song Society and Royal College of Organists respectively. The guide also includes winners of Making Music’s Philip & Dorothy Green Young Artists Award, St Martin-in-the-fields Chamber Music Competition winners, NYCGB Fellows selected from the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain programme and Adopt a Composer project composers. Visit www.makingmusic.org.uk/saguide to find out more.

Newsflash: We're in the Semifinals!

Published to Newsletter Subscribers on Monday 4 March 2019

Hello there!

We wanted to share the happy news that after a blind audition, we've been chosen as 1 of only 6 semifinalists for this year's prestigious St Martin-in-the-fields Chamber Music Competition!

This means that we will be giving a FREE performance in St Martin's church!
If you are available, we would love to see you in the audience and have your support!

Here are all the details:                      

• St Martin-in-the-fields, Trafalgar Square, London WC2N 4JJ

• Tuesday 5th March 2019, 1pm - 2pm (we're playing until 1:30)

• Our programme: 
  Beethoven– String Quartet No 11 in F minor ‘Serioso’, movement I
  Stravinsky– Three Pieces for String Quartet, mvmts I & II
  Schulhoff– Five Pieces for String Quartet

Visit the St Martin-in-the-fields website for more details

We hope to see you there - WISH US LUCK!

Love,
Bloomsbury Quartet

Winter 2019 Newsletter

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Published 29/01/2019

Welcome to our second newsletter - we hope you all had a wonderful Christmas & New Year!
2019 has kicked off with a bang - on 7 January, we were invited to share our experiences as a freshly-graduated ensemble for the benefit of postgraduate students in the Royal Academy of Music's Professional Development Day. Keep scrolling down to see what else we've been up to and what's coming up!

Upcoming Performances

Lunchtime Recital: St Botolph-without-Aldgate

Wednesday, January 30, 2019
1:05 PM - 1:30 PM
Church of St Botolph-without-Aldgate, Aldgate High Street, London, EC3N 1AB

We played our first concert as a quartet at St Botolph's Church a year ago, and are very excited to be back! Join us again to celebrate this milestone with a short but adventurous musical lunch break!

On our musical menu:

J. Haydn - Quartet in C Major, Op.20 No.2
- Moderato
- Capriccio. Adagio - Cantabile
- Minuet. Allegretto - Trio
- Fuga a 4 soggetti. Allegro

E. Schulhoff - 5 pieces for String Quartet (selected movements)

FREE ENTRY Retiring collection upon exit , proceeds split between St Botolph’s and Bloomsbury Quartet

Afternoon Matinee Recital: Lake District Summer Music

Thursday, January 31, 2019
2:30PM - 4:00PM
Ambleside Parish Centre, Vicarage Rd, Ambleside LA22 9DH

We are very excited about this concert in the village of Ambleside, situated in the beautiful Lake District. We will be playing a diverse and exciting programme, jumping from Haydn to Vaughan Williams, dancing from Schulhoff to Beethoven.

J. Haydn- String Quartet op. 20 no. 2 in C Major
R. Vaughan Williams - String Quartet no. 2 in A minor ‘For Jean on her Birthday’

~ Interval ~

E. Schulhoff - 5 pieces for String Quartet
L. v Beethoven - String Quartet Op. 95 in F minor ‘Serioso’

Tickets: £12 (£5 for 18 and under) Buy on the door, or to reserve please telephone 01524 736159 or email: patronsldsm@gmail.com

FridayLive
Friday, February 01 2019 Morning
Kendal Kirkbie School

A partnership was forged with Cumbria Music Hub several years ago in order to take live music into local schools (performance and workshop participation). It has been much welcomed by schools and 'FridayLive' offers an extra dimension of career experience to young performers following their formal concert for the Patrons of Lake District Summer Music. We are delighted to undertake a 'FridayLive' programme for Kendal schools during our visit to Cumbria, conducting 2 workshops and a Q&A session.

Chamber Tots: Rivers & Jungles
Friday, March 01 2019
12:30PM and 2:00PM
Wigmore Hall, 36 Wigmore Street, London W1U 2BP

Music-making workshops for children aged 1-2 / 3-5 and their parents/carers.
SOLD OUT - RETURNS ONLY
 

Chamber Tots: In The Garden
Wednesday, April 17 2019
10:15AM and 11:45AM
Wigmore Hall, 36 Wigmore Street, London W1U 2BP

Music-making workshops for children aged 1-2 / 3-5 and their parents/carers.
General Booking opens on 5 February
 

Lunchtime Recital: Romsey Chamber Music Festival

Friday 26th April 2019, 1pm - 2pm
United Reformed Church Romsey

Guest ensemble the Bloomsbury Quartet present a lunchtime concert of romantic works for string quartet.

Schubert Quartettsatz
Schulhoff 5 Pieces for String Quartet
Smetana String Quartet No. 1 in E minor “From My Life”

Tickets £10 Full price/ £5 U18s and full time students - BOOK HERE

Family Concert: Romsey Chamber Music Festival

Saturday 27th April 2019, 11AM - 12PM
United Reformed Church Romsey

The Bloomsbury Quartet are currently Wigmore Hall/Open Academy’s Fellowship Ensemble and in their second concert at RCMF, the Quartet present a wide variety of music for the whole family. Children are warmly encouraged to attend this concert and their will be an opportunity to meet the musicians at the end of the concert.

Tickets £10 Full Price, Children Free - BOOK HERE

For more details of our events and to book tickets, visit the Events page of our website!

Wigmore/Open Academy Fellowship

We're overjoyed to be the Wigmore Hall/Open Academy Fellowship Ensemble of 2018-19 - celebrating the partnership between the Wigmore Hall Learning programme and Open Academy. 

In Autumn 2018, we supported Wigmore Hall's Open House Day, performed onstage for babies in For Crying Out Loud!, did Chamber Tots workshops with VERY cute babies and toddlers, and joined in with the Singing With Friends dementia choir for some rehearsals and a joyous Christmas Sharing Concert!

We then kicked off 2019 with a Family Day "Chamber Challenge" workshop, where families learned about what it means to be in a chamber group, bonded through musical activities, wrote 2 brand-new songs and performed on the Wigmore stage.

Being Wigmore's Fellowship Ensemble has enabled us to work with their 3 Partner Schools - Weald Rise Primary (Harrow), Chestnuts Primary (Haringey) and St Mary's Catholic Primary (Hornchurch), as well as collaborate with this year's Wigmore/RPS Apprentice Composer Daniel Fardon and Trainee Music Leader Luke Newby. Occasionally, all these forces collide - in February we are working with music technologist Gawain Hewitt and Luke to create music with Chestnuts Primary students, which we will record alongside music by Daniel, all put together for Wigmore Learning's sound art installation (18 Feb) as part of its Sense of Home Festival.

Apart from the Festival, we are also joining in a Music for Thought project, Come and Create club (youths with Autism Spectrum Conditions), the aforementioned Chamber Tots workshops, a Relaxed Concert, premiering a brand-new piece written specially for us by Daniel, etc. ...the list goes on! There will be many more exciting events coming, so watch this space!

Thanks again for reading, we'd love to hear from you via email or social media, and if there's anyone who you think would like to receive this newsletter, send them our way!

Until next time!

Love from the Bloomsbury Quartet

Autumn 2018 Newsletter

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Hello and welcome to our very first newsletter!

First of all, we want to say a big thank you for all your support throughout Summer 2018 around London and the South-East. It was wonderful playing for and meeting all of you!

Now that we've fully entered into Autumn, with all the leaves falling and the wind picking up, we've got some news that we want to share with you!

So, without further ado...

Upcoming Events

MusicFor: An Autumn Evening

Thursday, October 11, 2018
8:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Holy Trinity Church, Stroud Green

We’re delighted to be returning to Stroud Green, playing our summer 2018 staples Beethoven "Serioso" No.11 Op.95 and Britten No.2, as well as our newfound gem Schubert Quartettsatz D.703. Seats can be reserved on the "pay-what-you-want" scheme and there'll even be a refreshments bar - what a steal! Click HERE to reserve your seat.

Evening Soiree- Dumbleton Hall Hotel

Tuesday, November 27th, 2018
7.00pm arrival
7.30pm recital

In November we’re heading off to the beautiful Cotswolds with a programme of Britten and Schubert, now paired with the incredible with Smetana Quartet No.1  "From My Life". It's looking to be a wonderful evening of music and gastronomy - you could even spend the night in the stunning 19th Century stone manor house! A luxurious mid-week treat - to join us, email the hotel at conferenceadmin@pofr.co.uk

There will be more Bloomsbury Quartet action to come in the New Year, and we're buzzing with all our performance project ideas for 2019, which we're developing with our mentor Clare Norburn, director of Stroud Green Festival. All will be revealed in due course so WATCH THIS SPACE!

For more details of our Autumn 2018 events and to book tickets, visit the Events page of our website.

We are Fellows!

We're overjoyed to be the Wigmore Hall/Open Academy Fellowship Ensemble of 2018-19 - celebrating the partnership between the Wigmore Hall Learning programme, and Open Academy.

Since our fellowship commenced in September 2018, we've helped people discover the aesthetics and acoustics of Wigmore Hall on its Open House Day (22 Sep), and performed in two For Crying Out Loud! concerts (28 Sep) specially designed for babies and their parents/carers.

Our next fellowship project is the sold-out Chamber Tots workshops on Sat 17 November - these enable music-making for children aged 1 to 5 with their parents/carers. We will be delivering more Chamber Tots workshops in 2019, under various themes, but we're kicking off with a bang as our theme this time is "Into Space" - which promises to be very thrilling indeed!

Finally, we have Twitter and Instagram at long last!
Now we can overshare our thoughts and have our candid moments (of which there are many!) caught on camera.
Click the black circular icons at the top-right of this page to explore our social media accounts for events, photos, videos and more!

Now, back to preparing for our concert on Thursday...

Thanks for reading, we'd love to hear from you via email or social media, and if there's anyone who you think would like to receive this newsletter, send them our way!

Until next time!

Love from the Bloomsbury Quartet x

Chichester Observer article & interview

Published in the Chichester Observer and other local associated papers on 11 July 2018
Article by Phil Hewitt

The Bloomsbury Quartet offer a programme entitled “Wartime: Before, During and After” for the Royal Academy of Music lunchtime series at this year’s Petworth Festival (Friday, July 20, 12 midday, Leconfield Hall, Petworth).

Eva de Vries, Janell Yeo (violins), Rachel Maxey (viola) and Felicity Smith (cello) will highlight music inextricably linked with times of war.

Just before the outbreak of The Great War, Stravinsky wrote Three Pieces for String Quartet. A century earlier Beethoven was living in Vienna when the city was invaded by Napoleon and responded in music. In 1945, Benjamin Britten and Yehudi Menuhin went to Germany to perform to concentration camp survivors. On their return Britten composed his String Quartet No 2.

“Obviously for the concert we were very influenced by the centenary of the end of the First World War,” says Felicity. “We are looking at pieces written around the time of war. Especially the last two wars had such an enormous impact on all art and a devastating effect on the way that we all look at society. It is difficult for us to imagine what it must have been like when Napoleon was trying to invade Europe, but it is quite easy to imagine the profound impact that the last two wars had. As well as innovation and change, I think the wars made us all address our roots and almost want to go back to a simple life.”

The Bloomsbury Quartet are postgraduate students at the Royal Academy of Music in Marylebone. As Eva says: “We have been together since October/September. It is quite recently. There was a speed-dating session at the Academy so that you get to play in groups. You have to sight-read for a few minutes and then go to another room where you sight-read with other people. I was playing with Felicity and I felt that she was such a sensitive player. I thought she must be playing with lots of other people. I sent her a message afterwards saying ‘I would love to play with you, but you must be very busy.’ She said she wasn’t playing with anyone. She knew Janell and Rachel and we first got together in late October. “It was instant. I just felt that everyone in the group has the same ability to listen to each other and the same feelings about the music and the same mutual respect, that someone would suggest something and the others would follow… or would challenge it positively.

“And also the girls are so funny! They make me laugh! And I think it is the most positive experience I have ever had of rehearsing, not just someone saying ‘Oh, that’s really bad!’ or ‘I don’t really like that!’ It is much more ‘Have you thought of doing this or this?’ It is all very positive and open. Everybody is trying to improve, and that is very rare. It is important to be open.””

Quick-Fire Questions for Stroud Green!

HELLO & WELCOME TO OUR BLOG! =D

We wanted to create a place where you can get to know us better, so here it is!

To kick things off, here are some quick-fire questions we answered for Stroud Green Festival, leading up to our performance on 7 June:

1) How did you meet?
"Eva & Felicity met at the Royal Academy of Music's chamber music speed dating session. They brought us all together and the rest is history!"

2) Tell us one quirky or unusual thing about your group:
"Our guilty pleasure & inspiration is Beyonce & Destiny's Child - most rehearsals include at least a line of a song, e.g. whenever anyone has a "Question?" (From the song "Independent Women" which is an inspirational feminist anthem for us!)"

3) What is your dream concert? 
"To travel around the world and see where the music takes us - from beaches to bandstands!"

Let us know what you'd like to read about in future posts!

Until next time,

Bloomsbury Quartet x