Consone Quartet

Agata Daraškaite, violin
Magdalena Loth-Hill, violin
Elitsa Bogdanova, viola 
George Ross, cello 

The first period instrument string quartet to be selected as BBC New Generation Artists, the Consone Quartet are fast making a name for themselves with their honest and expressive interpretations of repertoire, notably from the classical and romantic eras.

Career

Formed at the Royal College of Music in London, the Consone Quartet launched their professional career in 2015, shortly after which they were awarded two prizes at the 2015 York Early Music International Young Artists Competition, including the EUBO Development Trust Prize and a place on the EEEmerging Scheme in France. They went on to win the 2016 Royal Over-Seas League Ensemble Prize, and in 2022 were awarded a prestigious Borletti-Buitoni Trust (BBT) fellowship.

On stage

The quartet has been enthusiastically received at London’s major venues, as well as further afield in Poland, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Bulgaria and Slovenia. Festival invitations have included Edinburgh, Cheltenham, Dartington, Two Moors, Buxton, MA Festival in Bruges, Heidelberger Streichquartettfest and Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in Germany.

In 2024 the quartet returns to the English Haydn Festival and the York Early Music Festival, both of which are loyal supporters and regularly host the group. Consone are Artists-in-Residence at Paxton House (2023-2025) and at Saxon Shore Early Music Kenardington (2024-2027). Following tours of South America (2018) and Canada (2023) the quartet will return to North America in 2025 to perform both alone and in collaboration with pianist Kristian Bezuidenhout.

Repertoir

Last year the Consone Quartet premiered a new work for string sextet by Gavin Bryars, commissioned by friends of the Quartet, the Borletti-Buitoni Trust and BBC Radio 3. The sextet, entitled “The Bridges of Königsberg”, was broadcast on Radio 3 from St Martin-in-the-Fields in October 2023.

Education work

Education work remains a core interest to the group, having worked with students at the Royal College of Music in London, Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester, the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, as Hans Keller fellows for 2020-2022. In 2024, Consone begins a new partnership with the Frost Trust as “Visiting Quartet” at Sheffield’s Music in the Round.

Recordings

The quartet’s debut recording explored music by Haydn and Mendelssohn and was described by The Strad as an album “that instantly leaps out of the stereo at you as something special.” In Spring 2023 they released the first CD in a complete cycle of Mendelssohn’s string quartets with Linn Records. The album, featuring both the ‘1823’ and Op. 44 No. 3 quartets, has been described as ‘top-notch’ (Allmusic) and ‘exquisite’ (Pizzicato).