Profile

Violins: Ian Humphries, Rick Koster. Viola: Nic Pendlebury. Cello: Deirdre Cooper.

Now into its third decade the Smith Quartet remains at the forefront of the new music world. It has championed the works of the world’s most celebrated composers commissioning over 150 new pieces during its career. A list that includes recent works by Michael Nyman, Donnacha Dennehy and Joe Cutler and established quartets by Reich, Glass, Bryars, Volans, Fitkin and Skempton.

Continually striving to move beyond the string quartet’s traditional role in the concert hall the group has shared the stage with artists as different as rock group Pulp and Malian singer Rokia Traore. Working in partnership with Sound Intermedia, the concept of the stage itself can be challenged with commuters in Cologne, for example, witnessing the quartet performing Steve Reich’s Different Trains forty feet above the platform. The quartet’s long association with this seminal work led to a performance of the 2nd Movement, Europe – During The War, in the most unusual and poignant location of all when, along with artists such as Maxim Vengerov and Emmanuel Ax, it was asked to perform in the BBC's documentary film Holocaust – A Music Memorial Concert from Auschwitz. Filmed on location at Birkenau-Auschwitz at the end of 2004. The film went on to win a BAFTA and the 2006 Emmy for Best Arts Documentary Film.

The quartet has enjoyed a number of prestigious residencies recently including a five concert series in 2006/7 at the Sonic Arts Research Centre (SARC) at Queens University, Belfast. As Artists in Residence at the 2006 Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, they performed the complete works of Morton Feldman for piano and strings with the celebrated pianist John Tilbury.

In 2008 the Smiths toured South Korea for the first time performing to over 10,000 people during the course of their visit. They were also invited for a residency at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts during their trip to the Far East. 2009 saw the quartet make its US debut at the Phillips Collection in Washington DC followed by an appearance at the Bang On A Can Marathon event at the Winter Gardens, New York of which the New York Times commented, “…The Smith Quartet… drew one of the strongest responses of the day with its lush account of the early Gavin Bryars proto-Minimalist work The Sinking of the Titanic”. In October 2009 the Smith’s celebrated Kevin Volans’ 60th Birthday with two concerts at London’s Wigmore Hall where the Daily Telegraph noted that “…they… played with exquisite care”. 2010 highlights included an appearance at the Sligo New Music Festival, the Minimal Festival at Glasgow Concert Halls and the SOUND Festival in Aberdeen. in 2011 the quartet made a return appearance at the Greenwich International String Quartet Festival and gave the world premiere of Michael Nyman’s 5th quartet at the Automne en Normandie Festival in November.

In 2005 the Smith Quartet released its debut album, Different Trains, for Signum Classics. The album met with much critical acclaim, the Sunday Independent remarking that “…the Smith Quartet’s intense sound re-emphasises the rhapsodic ending of the work” and that Duet and the Triple Quartet “are played to perfection”. The second album Ghost Stories followed soon after and was described by the press as “…a compelling blend of live ensemble and electronics”. Andrew Clements of the Guardian wrote that the release was “…superbly played…”. The third album for Signum, Philip Glass Complete Quartets, received considerable critical acclaim and coverage in the media leading Classic FM magazine to ask “How long before the Kronos is labeled the ‘American Smith Quartet’? …they are ahead of the curve at generating new repertoire and taking the experimental back-catalogue seriously”.

The quartet released its fourth album Dance at the beginning of 2011. A collection of fourteen dances by composers from the worlds of classical, jazz, rock and world music it has received major coverage on Radio 3 and Classic FM. 2010 saw the release on Matchless Records of the first of three audio DVDs of the quartet’s performances of Feldman with John Tilbury at Huddersfield in 2006.

2012 highlights include performances of Configurations with the Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Co. at the Royal Opera House, a return to the Minimal Festival in Glasgow performing works by David Lang with the Bang On A Can Allstars, Andriessen and a rare performance of Morton Feldman’s mammoth 2nd String Quartet. The quartet has been invited back to Dusseldorf Festival later in the year as well as its third appearance at La Biennale in Venice. Forthcoming album releases for 2012 include the world premiere recording of Michael Nyman’s 5th quartet, volume two of the Matchless Records Feldman series and an album for the Radio France Editions series featuring new commissions by British composers.