Here’s a quick rundown of our upcoming projects, plus some highlights from the last few months.Do excuse the immediate plug, but coming up next for us is a project which we’re very excited about: starting tonight (Friday 8th) will be performing the soundtrack to Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Lobster live in Picturehouse cinemas around London and Brighton!

The soundtrack features a handful of our favourite quartets, including Beethoven op 18/1, Shostakovich 8 and Britten 1 – and we’ll be joined for these live performances by virtuoso pianist Pavel Timofeyevsky for extracts from Schnittke piano quintet, plus specially arranged excerpts of Strauss’ Don Quixote.

Performing the soundtrack to this incredible film is an idea that has taken over a year to come to fruition(!), so we’re very excited to kick it off tonight at the Bromley Picturehouse. Shows continue through until mid-December; so come along to a Picturehouse Cinema and bring the popcorn!

Read more about the event, watch our shiny trailer, and (most importantly) purchase tickets here.

We’re proud to be bringing the chamber music we love to unexpected venues, and to a wider audience with Solem lates. Last time we wrote to you, we were about to embark on our first Solem lates show: batozeyal. We had a great time performing in London, Liverpool and Manchester – huge thanks to those who came to those shows and made it such a special environment.You can read more about Solem lates here, where you’ll find more pictures and videos. Below is Bartók’s  Quartet no. 3 from memory, recorded as part of batózeyal at Manchester’s Soup Kitchen (May 2019).

Closer to home, we enjoyed a week-long tour of the Highlands in September. Thank you to the friendly audiences and perfect hosts who looked after us along the way. Our tour included visiting the northernmost town on the UK mainland (Thurso), playing live on BBC Radio Scotland, and appearing at the Glasgow Cathedral Festival.

Soon… we will be heading to Capua near Naples for our Italian debut, performing two concerts at the Autunno Musicale Festival on 15th and 16th November. We’ll be playing Haydn, Brahms, Beethoven, Bartók and are thrilled to be joining US-based pianist Michelle Schumann for the (Robert!) Schumann piano quintet.Later… we will be performing in the ever-impressive Leggate Theatre at the University of Liverpool for a lunchtime concert on 27th November featuring Haydn and Bartók.

We are particularly looking forward to heading to Liverpool, as we have recently committed to a further three years as Ensemble in Residence at the University! We look forward to continuing our work in the department and building relationships with students and staff alike. Huge thanks to Prof. Catherine Tackley and Dr. Helen Thomas for their constant support of our role at the University.