Winner of Chamber Music Residency Announced

 

The Cavaleri Quartet has been named as the first recipient of the Radcliffe Chamber Music Residency at the Faculty of Music, supported by the Radcliffe Trust. Anna Harpham, violin, Ciaran McCabe, violin, Ann Beilby, viola and Rowena Calvert, cello, rounded off a full afternoon of competitive performance in the glorious Holywell Music Room, Oxford, with a varied programme of Schnittke, Haydn, Webern and Ravel. Each quartet coached a student piano trio and were able to offer a taste of how they would interact with Oxford student performers. A judging panel consisting of Prof Laurence Dreyfus (performer and musicologist), Dr Martyn Harry (composer) and BBC Radio 3 personality Andrew MacGregor, were aided in their tough decision by 23 students of the Faculty who gave feedback on the performances of the quartets vying for the post.

The three other contestants, the Finzi Quartet, the Piatti Quartet and the Benyounes Quartet had already dazzled the avid audience with programmes including music by Thomas Adés, Smetana, Bridge, Brahms, Ravel and a new work by Armenian composer Artur Akshelyan, but it was the Cavaleri’s communicative refinement in conveying musical gesture, and their deeply held musical convictions which won the day.

The Faculty is pleased to welcome the Cavaleri Quartet in Hilary Term next year, beginning with a concert in February 2012 (date to be confirmed). The first of three periods of residency over the next two years, the quartet will also work with student composers in workshops and coach Faculty student chamber groups preparing for their examinations in performance. 

 

The Faculty is delighted to welcome the Cavaleri to the Oxford musical community.