Winner of the prestigious Royal Philharmonic Society Award for best chamber ensemble in 2007, the Dante Quartet is known for its imaginative programming and the emotional intensity of its performances. The group was founded in 1995 at the International Musicians Seminar at Prussia Cove, Cornwall, and chose the name of Dante to reflect the idea of a great and challenging journey.

The Dante Quartet plays at major concert halls, music societies and festivals throughout the UK, and in the past two years has appeared at the Aldeburgh, Bath, Cheltenham and City of London Festivals as well as Wigmore Hall and Kings Place in London.

The Quartet broadcasts regularly on BBC Radio 3 and has also performed in France, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, Poland and Finland. In April 2010 the Quartet played at Chateau Mcely in the Czech Republic, gave several concerts at the Peter de Grote Festival in Groningen, in the Netherlands and was featured at the 2010 Kings Place Festival.

In 2008 the Dante Quartet’s Hyperion recording of Franck and Fauré’s string quartets attracted unanimous praise and was honoured with a BBC Music Magazine Award in the UK and a Diapason d’Or in France. The Quartet’s next recording for Hyperion, of Debussy and Ravel’s string quartets, also attracted enthusiastic reviews. A new CD of the string quartets of Sibelius and Smetana has just been released (see Recordings page).

Since 2007 the Dante Quartet has been quartet-in-residence at King’s College, Cambridge, where they give master-classes, collaborate with the renowned King’s College Choir and create unusual concert programmes interlacing music with readings from literature.

The Quartet has taught at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, at Dartington and Cadenza Summer Schools and in Spain, and worked in association with the pioneering Cavatina Chamber Music Trust. Concert engagements are often combined with open rehearsals and special concerts for schoolchildren.

The Quartet has commissioned and premiered a number of new works under the title of the Divine Comedy Project by Roxanna Panufnik, Cheryl Frances-Hoad, Dmitri Smirnov and Elena and Alissa Firsova, all inspired in some way by Dante’s Divine Comedy. The Quartet also runs its own Dante Summer Music Festival in the Tamar Valley, a beautiful area on the Devon/Cornwall border.