Described by The Strad as presenting “a masterclass in unanimity of musical purpose, in which severity could melt seamlessly into charm, and drama into geniality”, the award-winning Carducci Quartet is internationally acclaimed as one of the most accomplished and versatile ensembles of today. Not only mastering the core repertoire, the quartet presents a selection of new works each season and diversifies further with programmes of film music, pop and rock. Founded in 1997, the ensemble has won numerous international competitions, including the Concert Artists Guild International Competition, and First Prize at Finland’s Kuhmo International Chamber Music Competition.

2020 saw the Quartet appear twice at the Barbican Centre, London; firstly to present “Beethoven’s String Quartets: Music, Love, Life and Letters” alongside actor Simon Callow, and secondly to perform a live streamed concert of chamber music alongside Ian Bostridge, Dame Sarah Connolly and Julius Drake. They were in further demand for streamed content with performances at the Wigmore Hall, St David’s Hall for the Cheltenham Music Festival, and the Ryedale and Presteigne Festivals.

In 2016, they took home a Royal Philharmonic Society Award for their project, Shostakovich15, an immense cycle of Shostakovich’s Quartets performed across the UK, North, and South America with a marathon one-day cycle hosted by Shakespeare’s Globe, London. The project was accompanied by a recording of the 4th, 8th, and 11th Quartets to which the Quartet added a further volume in Spring 2019 of the 1st, 2nd, and 7th Quartets, acclaimed by Gramophone Magazine for its “…athletic, upfront performances, clear in texture, forthright in tone and bold in articulation". The Quartet will return to Shostakovich in 2022, performing a complete cycle at the Wigmore Hall, London.

The Carducci Quartet performs at prestigious venues across the globe including the Barbican Centre, Cadogan Hall and Wigmore Hall, London; National Concert Hall, Dublin; Tivoli Concert Hall, Copenhagen; The Frick Collection and Carnegie Hall, New York; Library of Congress and John. F Kennedy Center, Washington D.C.; St Lawrence Center for the Arts, Toronto; and Concertgebouw, Amsterdam. Festival residencies include Cheltenham, Ryedale, Lichfield, Presteigne, Kilkenny, Snape Proms, and West Cork.

Highly celebrated for their interpretation of contemporary repertoire, the Carducci Quartet has devised numerous diverse projects and is regularly invited to perform new works. Recent and upcoming premieres include works by Simon Rowland-Jones, Gavin Higgins, Karl Jenkins, Jonny Greenwood and Kate Whitley. In 2015 they curated projects around Philip Glass and Steve Reich as part of the Royal Philharmonic Society Award winning ‘Minimalism Unwrapped’ at Kings Place in London. Their recording of the Philip Glass Quartets, for Naxos, has reached over 6 million plays on Spotify.

Education work is an important element of the Carducci Quartet’s work, earning them a place on the Royal Philharmonic Society Award shortlist for their family concert ‘Getting the Quartet Bug!’. The Carducci Music Trust was set up to support their work in schools and with young musicians. They also perform a number of school concerts each year supported by the CAVATINA Chamber Music Trust.