Beethoven: String Quartet No. 1 in F, Op. 18 No. 1
Tippett: String Quartet No. 2 in F sharp
Debussy: String Quartet in G minor

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The Heath Quartet was formed in 2002 under the guidance of Dr. Christopher Rowland at the Royal Northern College of Music, where they won all the major ensemble prizes. In 2008 they were awarded first prize in the 19th Tromp International String Quartet Competition, and in 2009 they won second prize (no first prize was awarded) in the 4th Haydn International String Quartet Competition. This led to a performance in the bicentenary Haydn Festspiele at Esterhazy Palace. In the UK the Quartet has performed under the auspices of the Countess of Munster Recital Scheme, Making Music and the Tunnell Trust; and were MBF Young Artists in Residence at the Lake District Summer Music Festival. In May 2008 they were selected for representation by YCAT and, last September, appointed Leverhulme Junior Fellows in Chamber Music at the RNCM.

Passionate about performing music of today, the Quartet has collaborated with a number of leading composers including Louis Andriessen, Anthony Gilbert, Steve Martland and most closely with Hans Abrahamsen, culminating in a live broadcast with the composer from The Royal Albert Hall as part of the BBC Proms. They gave the European premiere of Steve Mackie’s Gaggle and Flock, and received unanimous critical acclaim for their performance of Ligeti’s Quartet No.2 and Thomas Ades’s Arcadiana for the Park Lane Group at the Purcell Room. The Heath Quartet has enjoyed fruitful artistic partnerships with musicians such as Ashley Wass, Alessandro Carbonare, Alastair Tait and Colin Currie.

Some recent highlights have included concerts in the Wigmore Hall, Auditorio Nacional de Musica (Madrid), Mozartsaal (Vienna) and Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), several performances for Netherlands radio, and a programme of Berg and Haydn recorded at The Sage and broadcast on BBC Radio 3.