For almost twenty years The Smith Quartet has been at the forefront of contemporary music. They have built an impressive repertoire by many of the world’s most exciting composers and have established an international reputation for a dynamic style and an original approach to contemporary music. The quartet is dedicated to the commissioning of new works and to date have had over 100 works written especially for them.

Kevin Volans, Django Bates, Michael Nyman, Stephen Montague, Gavin Bryars, Michael Daugherty and Howard Skempton are amongst many who have written for the quartet. In addition to regular broadcasts with the BBC, they have featured on numerous CDs including Karl Jenkin’s release Diamond Music, Steve Martland‘s Patrol, and most recently Django Bates’ well received release entitled You Live and Learn…(Apparently).

In 2005 the quartet released their debut album on the Signum label, featuring Steve Reich's Different Trains, Triple Quartet and Duet. The album received rave revues from magazines, radio, the press and even online. Their next CD, Ghost Stories, also on Signum, recieved further enthusiastic critical acclaim, Andrew Clements at The Guardian commented that the release was “...superbly played...”

Spring 2008 marks the quartets latest release on Signum Classics, Complete String Quartets by Philip Glass. This release has recieved considerable critical accliam and coverage in the media in a very short space of time. The Observer reports that “...Glass weaves filigree tapestries given polished, finely detailed airings by the virtuoso Brits”, while The Guardian kindly notes that the quartet are “...Britain’s answer to the Kronos”. Classic FM Magazine goes one step further proclaiming “How long before the Kronos is labelled the ‘American Smith Quartet’? ...they are ahead of the curve at generating new repertoire and taking the experimental back-catalogue seriously...” Gramophone rounds things off with “If success was measured according to output and sales units alone, Glass would be head and shoulders above his contemporaries ... played with characteristic precision and projection by the ensemble...”

The quartet’s touring schedule has taken them as far a field as North and South America, South East Asia and Japan as well as throughout Europe and the UK. In the last number of seasons festival appearances have included Les Jardins Musicaux Switzerland, West Cork Chamber Music Festival, The Musica Viva Festival in Lisbon, The Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Vancouver Festival, La Biennale di Venezia, Jauna Muzika Vilnius, L’itineraire de Nuit in Paris, Vale of Glamorgan and the Flanders Festival Brussels. Highlights have included a sold out performance at the BBC’s John Adams Weekend at the Barbican and the European premiere of Steve Reich’s Triple Quartet at Cheltenham International Festival. They have collaborated with an eclectic range of artists such as Django Bates, saxophonist Andy Sheppard, John Harle, Gerard McChrystal and dance companies Siobhan Davies, Shobana Jeyasingh and Ultima Vez.

Much of the quartet’s repertoire involves the use of live electronics and multimedia. It has, over the last few years, enjoyed a fruitful relationship with Soundintermedia, their sound designers. This collaboration has helped the ensemble take their music to a variety of extra ordinary venues including being suspended 60’ above the tracks of Koln’s Haupbahnhof. The use of electronics and multimedia has also helped develop a new repertoire that challenges the perceptions of the more “traditional” role of the string quartet.

In 2005, the Smith Quartet appeared in BBC 2’s Holocaust – A Music Memorial Concert from Auschwitz filmed on location in Auschwitz. They performed Steve Reich’s Different Trains and Messian’s Quartet for the End of Time. The film marked the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and was shown in many countries throughout the world. It has won numerous prestigious awards including a BAFTA and an Emmy in 2006.

The quartet enjoyed a number of prestigious residencies in their 2006/7 season including furthering their ongoing relationship with Queens University Belfast as their quartet in residence at the Sonic Arts Research Centre (SARC) as well as a series of European concerts featuring the work of celebrated Portuguese composers as part of Miso Music’s Circuits tour. As artists in residence at the 2006 Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, they performed all of Morton Feldman’s works for piano and strings together with the celebrated pianist John Tilbury. These concerts were recorded live and will be released by Matchless records.

Future highlights include concerts in Scotland, Slovenia, Austria, and Portugal, a residency in Hong Kong, a tour to South Korea, and a performance of Kevin Volans string quartet’s at the Wigmore Hall in London.