Consone Quartet
Agata Daraškaitė, Magdalena Loth-Hill – violin
Elitsa Bogdanova – viola
George Ross - cello
“…They play with perfect intonation, tremendous attack, and impeccable historical style. All the four instruments work together with such intelligence and imagination that I would happily listen to them every day” - Sir Roger Norrington
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. 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.
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 include 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.
2023 sees the Consone Quartet premiere 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”, is featured in six concerts around the UK, culminating in a London premiere at St Martin-in-the-Fields in October 2023, which will be broadcast on Radio 3. The concerts are kindly supported by the Continuo Foundation.
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.
The Consone’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 2022 they launched a new partnership with Linn Records, beginning with the complete cycle of Mendelssohn’s string quartets. The first album, released in Spring 2023 and featuring both the ‘1823’ and Op. 44 No. 3 quartets, has been described as ‘top-notch’ (Allmusic) and ‘exquisite’ (Pizzicato).