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 including recent works by Donnacha Dennehy and Joe Cutler and pieces by Michael Nyman, Kevin Volans, Gavin Bryars, Graham Fitkin, and Howard Skempton.
The Quartet will be celebrating the Nancarrow centenary by beginning the programme with his Quartet No.1, before venturing into the boldly-coloured soundscapes of Graham Fitkin’s A Small Quartet and Michael Nyman’s Quartet No.3. The evening will continue with Digital, by genre-crossing multi-instrumentalist Elliott Sharp, followed by British composer and jazz bassist Gavin Bryars’ Between the National and Bristol. George Crumb’s wild, Vietnam-war inspired parable Black Angels completes the evening.
For more information on the quartet, visit http://www.smithquartet.com/.
For details of the rest of our 2012 New Music season, visit http://www.kettlesyard.co.uk/music/newmusic/.
“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” (Classic FM Magazine)
There will be a bar available during the interval. The concert will be introduced by composer and Kettle's Yard New Music Associate Stephen Montague, and will last approximately 2 hours.