Heath String Quartet

The Heath Quartet are excited to announce that on the 23rd November 2008 they won 1st Prize in the 2008 TROMP International Music Competition held in Eindhoven, Holland. They also won the Audience Prize, the Youth Jury Prize and the Willem Vos Prize for the best performance of a Dutch composition.

The Heath Quartet was formed in 2002 at the Royal Northern College of Music, under the guidance of Dr. Christopher Rowland. Over the last year they have studied with Alasdair Tait at the Reina Sofia in Madrid, were selected for representation by YCAT (May 2008), and last September took up their appointment as Junior Fellows at the RNCM. Other tutors have included Gabor Takacs-Nagy at the International Musicians Seminar, Prussia Cove, and members of the Alban Berg, Endellion, Lindsay and La Salle Quartets.

During their studies at the RNCM the Quartet won all the major ensemble prizes including The Nossek and Terence Weil Memorial Competitions and, on graduating in 2005, received the prestigious Sir John Barbirolli Memorial Prize. In 2005 they won the Philharmonia Orchestra/Martin Musical Scholarship Fund Ensemble Award which led to their Purcell Room debut. In 2008, they were semi-finalists in the 57th ARD International Music Competition.

Over the last year the Quartet has given recitals throughout the UK, under the auspices of the Countess of Munster Recital Scheme, the Making Music Concert Promoters Society and the Tunnell Trust. They continue to perform for The Park Lane Group Young Artist Series and from 2005 to 2008 were MBF Young Artists in Residence at the Lake District Summer Music Festival.

The Heath Quartet is actively enthusiastic about performing music of today and has collaborated with several leading composers including Louis Andriessen, Anthony Gilbert, Steve Martland and particularly with Hans Abrahamsen, culminating in a live broadcast with the composer on BBC Radio 3 from The Royal Albert Hall as a part of the BBC Proms Ades’ Arcadiana for The Park Lane Group at the Purcell Room. The Quartet has enjoyed collaborating with musicians such as Ashley Wass, Alasdair Tait, Alessandro Carbonare, Colin Currie, and leading UK contemporary collective Psappha.