L. V. Beethoven: String Quartet No. 16 in F Major, Op. 135
Ian Venables: The Wreaths of Time Op. 57 (World Premiere)
The Wreaths of Time Program Poetry and Notes
Wreaths of Time American Poetry
The Wreaths of Time (progrmme notes) final
The Dante Quartet, one of the UK’s finest ensembles, is known for its imaginative programming and impassioned performances. The Quartet was founded in 1995 choosing its name to reflect an epic journey. The Quartet has been honored with the Royal Philharmonic Society Award for Chamber Music and has received international awards for its recordings.
Frequently heard on Radio 3, the Quartet has appeared many times at London’s Wigmore Hall and Kings Place and some of the UK’s foremost festivals and music societies. It has also played in France, Germany, Holland, Spain, Switzerland, Finland, the Czech Republic, Poland, and South Africa and has twice toured Japan.
The Dante Quartet has made a series of acclaimed recordings for Hyperion, winning the BBC Music Magazine Award and the French Diapason d’Or. The Quartet has also recorded for Signum and Toccata Records and their recording of the string quartets by Herbert Howells was released on the Naxos label in 2019. The Dante Quartet has recently recorded the eight string quartets and two quintets of C.V. Stanford on the SOMM label.
The Quartet has performed cycles of the complete Beethoven and Shostakovich string quartets in single marathon weekends. They have collaborated with playwright Clare Norburn (author of concert-drama ‘Breaking the Rules’) on a dramatized version of Beethoven’s quartet cycle, featuring actor David Timson as the composer. This innovative format has proved popular and has been performed many times. The Quartet undertook further performances of ‘Beethoven’s Quartet Journey’ in August 2022.
South African-born Zoë Beyers has established a reputation as one of the finest and most versatile violinists based in the UK who performs worldwide as a soloist, chamber musician, director, and orchestral leader.
Highlights of the 2019/2020 season include appearances at the Wigmore Hall with IMusicanti, the St Magnus Festival in Orkney and the Edinburgh International Festival with Hebrides Ensemble, solo appearances with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, English Symphony Orchestra, Norwich Philharmonic and Warwick Symphony Orchestra.
Zoë appears regularly as guest leader of the Hallé, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, BBC Philharmonic and BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestras, the CBSO, the Philharmonia, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and the Orquesta Nacional de España at the invitation of Maestro Juanjo Mena.
Since 2017, Zoë has been the concertmaster of the English Symphony Orchestra, collaborating closely with them as director and soloist.
In September 2020, Zoë took up the position of concertmaster of the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra.
As a chamber musician, Zoë appears with the Hebrides Ensemble, Nash Ensemble, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, and the London Sinfonietta.
She has recently joined the renowned Dante Quartet as their first violinist.
Zoë is passionately interested in education, teaching at the Birmingham Conservatoire, and coaching violinists and ensembles at the start of their careers. She is proud to be involved in ARCO, a distance learning collaboration between Birmingham Conservatoire and students in deprived areas.
South African violinist Ian Watson obtained an MMus at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in 2008, enabled by an RSM International Scholarship. Before this, he obtained a BMus (Hons) from the University of Stellenbosch and was appointed Co-Principal 2nd Violin with the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra, at the age of 21.
After graduating in Scotland, Ian formed a duo with celebrated guitarist-composer, Marek Pasieczny. This collaboration led to invitations to Italy, Japan, South Africa, and Poland, where they subsequently became Laureate of the Nowa Tradycja Competition in Warsaw, in 2008.
Ian joined the Royal Northern Sinfonia in 2010, under the direction of Thomas Zehetmair. Two years later he was appointed Principal 1st Violin of the Hallé Orchestra, under Sir Mark Elder. Highlights from this period include Parsifal at the BBC Proms (2013) and many tours within Europe, China, and South America.
Since leaving the Hallé in 2015, Ian has enjoyed a varied career as a guest Principal 2nd Violin and Co-Leader with some of Britain’s major orchestras and chamber ensembles, including the Royal Philharmonic, BBC Philharmonic, BBC SSO, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Ulster Orchestra, Welsh National Opera, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, London Mozart Players, Manchester Collective, Scottish Ensemble and the Hague Philharmonic Orchestra. He has appeared as a guest leader of the KZN Philharmonic and the Cape Philharmonic Orchestras (RSA) and regularly leads/directs the Northern Chamber Orchestra.
Ian plays in the first violin section of the Aurora Orchestra, which has earned international recognition for performing ambitious and large-scale symphonic works entirely from memory.
In 2019 he joined the renowned Dante String Quartet. He lives in Chester with his wife and two children.
Scottish violist Carol Ella has been a member of the Dante Quartet since 2021.
At 21, she began playing with the London Symphony Orchestra after winning a place on their string scheme. She was subsequently awarded the LSO Promis Award for Outstanding Contribution and became an orchestra member in 2018.
Before joining the LSO, Carol spent ten years as a member of the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Her twenty orchestral years took her all over the globe, performing under the batons of such great conductors as Pierre Boulez, Bernard Haitink, André Previn, Ricardo Muti, Mstislav Rostropovich, Valery Gergiev, Oliver Knussen, Sir Simon Rattle, and Sir Colin Davis.
Carol has been invited as Guest Principal Viola to many of the leading UK orchestras, including the BBC Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Aurora Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Knussen Chamber Orchestra, Northern Chamber Orchestra, Opera North, and English National Opera. She is also a regular violist of the John Wilson Orchestra and his Sinfonia of London, and performs frequently with Scottish Ensemble and Manchester Collective.
As a tutor, Carol has taken classes at the Royal College of Music, the Royal Academy of Music, the Guildhall School of Music, and the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.
Away from the concert platform, Carol has enjoyed playing for musicals in London’s West End. She has recorded numerous soundtracks for film and TV (including some Harry Potter films) and albums with the likes of Neil Diamond, Emeli Sandé, and Sir Paul McCartney. She has performed live with various rock and pop stars, including Ed Sheeran, and a run of concerts with Barbra Streisand at London’s O2 Arena.
Carol plays on a viola by Christian Bayon, modeled on a viola by Carlo Antonia Testore from 1741.
Richard Jenkinson’s musical education began at the age of five when he started to play the cello and was awarded a scholarship by Derbyshire County Council to study with Florence Hooton and William Pleeth.
Whilst in the sixth form, Richard began his conducting studies with Michael Salter at Repton School. In 1990 he won a scholarship to the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, studying ‘cello with Raphael Wallfisch and William Pleeth and conducting with Alan Hazeldine.
He graduated with Distinction in 1994 and was awarded the Guildhall’s coveted Gold Medal for the Dvořák ‘Cello Concerto in the Barbican.
In 1995 he was awarded a top prize at the Vittorio Gui Chamber Music Competition in Italy and was invited to be part of the Countess of Munster recital scheme. This has led to a very productive partnership with the pianist Benjamin Frith, including recitals at London’s Wigmore Hall and South Bank Centre and several recordings.
Richard has given concerto performances with the BBC Concert Orchestra, C.B.S.O., Irish Chamber Orchestra, and Venezuelan Symphony and has performed the Elgar Concerto in the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London and the Dvořák Concerto in the Dvořák Hall of the Rudolfinum in Prague. In 1995 Richard became principal ‘cello with the Irish Chamber Orchestra and from 1998-2016 he was principal ‘cello with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. He has acted as guest principal for BBC Scottish, English Symphony, Halle, London Concert, Opera North, Orchestra of the Swan, Philharmonia, Royal Northern Sinfonia, and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestras.
Hailed as “a strikingly gifted tenor, with a deeply moving, unblemished voice” (sfmusicjournal.com), and “a brilliant tenor, his voice plangent and supremely expressive” (FanFare), tenor Brian Thorsett excels in opera, oratorio and recital across the world. Since taking to the stage, Brian has been seen and heard in over 100 diverse operatic roles, ranging from Monteverdi to Britten, back to Rameau, and ahead again to works composed specifically for his talents. As a concert singer, Brian fosters a stylistically diversified repertoire of over 300 works, which has taken him to concert halls across the US and Europe.
An avid recitalist, Brian is closely associated with expanding the vocal-chamber genre and has been involved in premieres and commissions of Ian Venables, Hilary Tann, David Conte, Gordon Getty, Christopher Stark, Stacy Garrop, and Shinji Eshima, among many others. His dedication to this project has resulted in over 180 new works in the past 10 years, nearly all of which have been published and performed by renowned artists across the globe. Brian has also been heard in recordings, commercials, and movies as the voice for SoundIron’s library Voice of Rapture: Tenor. Among his CD/Digital releases are song cycles of David Conte (Everyone Sang), Nature, Love, and Death – an album of orchestral song cycles for tenor (Conte, Stilwell, and Choate) on Arsis, Scott Gendel’s Barbara Allen, Daron Hagen’s Rapture and Regret (American Record Guide “Must Have List” January/February 2023) and a Christmas Album with New Trinity Baroque. Future releases include British song cycles by Somervell, Lehmann, and Madue White on English Music Records and sponsored in part by the Vaughan Williams Trust, and an album of vocal chamber music composed specifically for him – October Skies (MSR 2023). He is a graduate of San Francisco Opera’s Merola Program, Glimmerglass Opera’s Young American Artist program, American Bach Soloists’ Academy, the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme at Aldeburgh, England and spent two summers at the Music Academy of the West. Brian is currently an Associate Professor of Voice at the School of Performing Arts at Virginia Tech, where he has seen his students go on to do diverse things such as major graduate and training programs, premiere major new works by renowned composers, sing off-Broadway, produce award-winning hip-hop albums, and serve as researchers at the White House. www.brianthorsett.com
