Quatuor Bozzini

Standard £25 // Solidarity £32.50 // Kirklees Resident £23 // Under 30 £8
Our Solidarity ticket price is an opportunity for audiences to support our work by purchasing a ticket at a slightly higher price (the cost of a Standard ticket plus 30%). Read more about Solidarity prices here.

Advance booking required

Estimated end time: 1.35pm

Quatuor Bozzini:
Alissa Cheung violin
Clemens Merkel violin
Stéphanie Bozzini viola
Isabelle Bozzini cello

Egidija Medekšaitė (Lithuania, 1979)
Megh Malhar (2015) 11′

Gregor Kulla (Estonia, 2000)
whatevergirl (2026) 8′ UK Premiere

Cassandra Miller (Canada, 1976)
Three Songs (2025) 24′ UK Premiere

Gerald Barry (Ireland, 1952)
String Quartet No. 4 “First Sorrow” (2006-2007) 15′

Long-time hcmf// favourites Quatour Bozzini return to Huddersfield with a programme that showcases the quartet’s distinctive approach to contemporary music: curious, collaborative and deeply committed to new artistic voices.

At its heart is the UK premiere of Cassandra Miller’s Three Songs, following acclaimed performances in New York, Darmstadt, Montréal, Hamburg and Toronto. Since their first encounter at the Composers’ Kitchen in Montréal in 2009, Miller and Quatuor Bozzini have developed not only a close artistic partnership but a personal friendship, of which Three Songs is the most recent expression.

The concert opens with a celebration of music from the Baltic countries, with works by Lithuanian composer Egidija Medekšaitė and Estonian composer Gregor Kulla. Medekšaitė’s Megh Malhar and Kulla’s UK premiere whatevergirl offer two contrasting approaches to contemporary quartet writing, revealing rich and distinctive musical worlds through texture, form and sonic imagination.

Completing the programme is Gerald Barry’s String Quartet No. 4, First Sorrow, marking the release of Quatuor Bozzini’s album of Barry’s complete string quartets. Taking its title from a Kafka story of the same name about a trapeze artist who is happy only when aloft, this is striking music full of fragility, beauty and outbursts.

Produced by hcmf// supported by Culture Ireland, Estonian Centre of Contemporary Music, Lithuanian Culture Institute and Music Information Centre Lithuania; also supported by Hinrichsen Foundation, Vaughan Williams Foundation and Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Québec

Megh Malhar is commissioned by Quatuor Bozzini for Composer’s Kitchen 2016

whatevergirl is commissioned by Estonian Music Days

Three Songs is co-commissioned by Earle Brown Music Foundation Charitable Trust, Soundstreams, Le Vivier, Quatuor Bozzini, Darmstädter Ferienkurse and hcmf//, with support from the Canada Council for the Arts

String Quartet No. 4 First Sorrow is commissioned by Crash Ensemble with funds from the Irish Arts Council

Photo: Bozzini Quartet © Michael Slobodian