The charismatic and sought-after Heath String Quartet won the 2016 Gramophone Chamber Award for their recording of the complete quartets of Sir Michael Tippett, and in 2013 became the first ensemble in 15 years to win the prestigious Royal Philharmonic Society’s Young Artists Award. Formed in Manchester in 2002 they were selected for representation by YCAT, awarded a Borletti-Buitoni Special Ensemble Scholarship and won the Ensemble Prize at the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern where they are now regular visitors.
Following their award-winning debut recording of Tippett on the Wigmore LIVE label, the quartet recorded two discs for the Harmonia Mundi/PIAS label featuring Tchaikovsky’s first and third quartets (2016) and the complete Bartók quartets (2017), the latter being shortlisted for the 2018 Gramophone Chamber Award and the winner of the 2017 Limelight Chamber Recording of the Year award.
Notable concert performances have included the world premiere of John Tavener’s Requiem Fragments at the BBC Proms, performances with actors Olwen Fouéré, Jeremy Irons and Alex Jennings juxtaposing the Four Quartets of TS Eliot with Beethoven, and a single-evening performance of Jörg Widmann’s 5-part “super- quartet” in Berlin in 2018. In 2013 they appeared in ENO’s Fidelio production, playing Beethoven while suspended above the stage.
In the UK they perform regularly at Wigmore Hall and have appeared at Barbican, Bridgewater Hall, Sage Gateshead, Perth Concert Hall, Saffron Hall, Queen’s Hall Edinburgh and the Aldeburgh, Brighton and Cheltenham Festivals. European highlights include the Kissingen Winterzauber and Schwetzinger Festivals, Pierre Boulez Saal Berlin, Elbphilharmonie, Beethoven-Haus Bonn, Musée d’Orsay and Louvre Auditorium in Paris, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, deSingel Arts Centre in Antwerp, Palau de la Musica Catalana in Barcelona, Vara Konserthus in Sweden, Esterházy Palace, and the Musikverein and the Konzerthaus in Berlin and Vienna. Further afield they have performed at Carnegie Hall, Walter Hall in Toronto, Adelaide Festival of the Arts and throughout New Zealand. They have also held several residencies at Middlebury College, Vermont.Strong exponents of contemporary music, the quartet have worked with leading composers including Hans Abrahamsen, Brett Dean, Helen Grime, Sofia Gubaidulina and Steve Mackey. The quartet has enjoyed a number of collaborations with the director Calixto Bieto and in 2018 embarked on a co-production between Birmingham REP and Holland Festival “The String Quartet’s Guide”, which toured throughout Europe.

Equally at home on the concert and opera stages, Carolyn Sampson has enjoyed notable successes in the UK as well as throughout Europe and the US.
On the opera stage her roles for English National Opera have included the title role in Semele and Pamina in The Magic Flute. For Glyndebourne Festival Opera she sang various roles in Purcell’s The Fairy Queen In 2012 she sang Anne Truelove/The Rake’s Progress in Sir David McVicar’s new production for Scottish Opera. Internationally she has appeared at Opéra de Paris, Opéra de Lille, Opéra de Montpellier and Opéra National du Rhin. Carolyn Sampson’s numerous concert engagements in the UK have included regular appearances at the BBC Proms and with orchestras including The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, The English Concert, Bach Collegium Japan, Britten Sinfonia and The Sixteen. She is a frequent guest with the Hallé and has performed with City of London Sinfonia, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestras.
In Europe her many appearances have included concerts with Bergen Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra of the Bayerische Rundfunk, WDR Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Gürzenich Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and a performance of J C Bach’s Lucio Silla with the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra. In the US Carolyn Sampson has featured as soloist with San Francisco Symphony, Boston Symphony, Detroit Symphony, St Paul Chamber Orchestra and is a regular guest at the Mostly Mozart Festival. In October 2013 she made her Carnegie Hall recital debut to a sold-out audience in the Weill Recital Hall.
Carolyn works regularly with conductors such as Sir Mark Elder, Markus Stenz, Ivor Bolton, Philippe Herreweghe, Harry Bicket, Trevor Pinnock, Riccardo Chailly, Louis Langrée, Harry Christophers and Robert King.
A consummate recitalist, Carolyn Sampson appears regularly at the Wigmore Hall where a recital of lute songs with Matthew Wadsworth was recorded and released to huge critical acclaim. She has given regular recitals at the Saintes and Aldeburgh Festivals as well as the Amsterdam Concertgebouw.