Takacs String Quartet
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The Competition, originally the brainchild of Yehudi Menuhin in 1977, is well established as the most prestigious of its kind in the world. It is held every three years and is open to any string quartet except previous London First Prizewinners. It consistently attracts entries from around the world including the USA, Europe, Japan, Russia and China. Past prizewinners include the Takacs String Quartet, the Alexander, the Hagen, the Vanbrugh, the Castegneri, the Endellion, the Ysaye, the Auer and the Belcea quartets, all of whom are now highly successful.
The Takacs String Quartet is now recognized as one of the worlds premiere string quartets, the Takacs String Quartet plays with a technique that is highly virtuosic, intense immediacy and consistently burnished tone. The Takacs String Quartet explores its repertoire with intellectual curiosity and passion, creating performances that are probing, revealing and constantly engaging. The Quartet has been described as having "warmth, exuberance, buoyancy, a teasing subtlety, unanimity of purpose without compromising the individual personalities of each performer, a blossoming tone, and above all the instinct to play from inside the music" The Takács Quartet is based in Boulder, Colorado, where it has been in residence at the University of Colorado since 1983.
In support of and celebration of London String Quartet Week an education project will take place in schools in Tower Hamlets and Newham. Children will be introduced to chamber music through workshops in creative movement, poetry, art and song. The workshops will be led by musicians from the Kerem Quartet from the Royal College of Music.
David Waterman, cellist and founder member of the Endellion String Quartet, in a coaching session with three aspiring quartets. An appropriate start for the Week, as the world-renowned Endellion were amongst the winners of the first International Competition back in 1979! Since then, they've appeared all over the world, have recently toured Germany, and are currently in the middle of a Beethoven Quartet Cycle at the newly-refurbished concert hall in Hampstead Town Hall in London.
David Waterman has lived and breathed string quartet playing since his student days in Cambridge and as well as playing, has taught at the Yehudi Menuhin School, the RNCM, the Royal Academy of Music, the Guildhall, the Menuhin Academy at Gstaad and at MIT in Boston, USA. He is an enthusiastic and compassionate teacher and this promises to be a stimulating and insightful afternoon.