Navarra String Quartet

Formed in 2002 at the Royal Northern College of Music under the guidance of the late Dr Christopher Rowland, the Quartet were Junior Fellows at the RNCM and postgraduate students of the Alban Berg Quartet in Cologne. The Quartet has won numerous prizes and awards, including Second Prize in the 2007 Melbourne International Competition and First Prize in the 2005 Florence International Competition. They have taken part in the International Musicians Seminar at Prussia Cove and during 2008 were resident quartet at the Britten-Pears School in Aldeburgh and at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland. In 2009 the Navarra‘s gave debut concerts at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Philharmonie in Luxembourg and Schwetzinger Festspiele and took part in the Haydn series at Wigmore Hall, broadcast by BBC Radio 3. They also recorded Haydn’s 7 Last Words on the Cross for Altara Records for which they commissioned 9 paintings for illustrated performances from world-renowned artist Jamie Boyd, and gave performances at the Royal Northern College of Music and the City of London Festival. Over the last two years the Quartet has appeared at major festivals and venues in Europe including the Rheingau and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festivals in Germany, the Aix-en-Provence and Bellerive Festivals in France, the Kattegat and Sandviken Festivals in Sweden, and given recitals in Italy, Ireland, Russia, the USA and Bahrain. They have toured throughout the UK and worked with Wayne MacGregor‘s Random Dance Company on a new work called Entity with music by Joby Talbot giving a series of performances at Sadler’s Wells and in Aldeburgh and Amsterdam. Future plans include return visits to Wigmore Hall and Aldeburgh, concerts in Switzerland, Italy, France, the Netherlands and Bahrain and a tour throughout Australia including recitals in Melbourne and Sydney and a residency at the Huntingdon Estate Music Festival. In 2010 the Quartet record their first CD for Challenge Records as part of a long-term recording project. Collaborative artists with whom the quartet has worked include the Elias and Sacconi Quartets, Richard Harwood, Guy Johnston, Hansjörg Schellenberger, Jiri Hudec, Julius Drake, Allan Clayton, Patricia Bardon, John O'Conor and Alasdair Tait. They have broadcast for BBC Radio 3, RAI 3 (Italy), Radio 4 (Holland), SWR (Germany), Radio Luxembourg, Swiss Radio and ABC Classic FM (Australia). Passionate about education, the Quartet are an associated quartet at the RNCM, have residencies at Repton School in Derby and at St Christopher‘s School in Bahrain and are part of the Wigmore Hall’s Chamber Challenge program.