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THE BELCEA QUARTET
Corina Belcea (violin); Laura Samuel
(violin);
Krzysztof Chorzelski (viola); Alasdair Tait (cello)  The Belcea Quartet are rapidly gaining an enviable reputation as one of the leading quartets of the younger generation. They
continue to take the British and international chamber music circuit by storm, consistently receiving impressive critical acclaim
for their performances. Since the Fall of 2001, they have been the Resident Quartet of London's Wigmore Hall, and in July 2002,
embarked on an exclusive recording contract with EMI Classics.
The Belcea Quartet’s initial recording for EMI was for the debut series, and comprised the quartets of Debussy, Ravel and
Dutilleux. This disc won the 2001 Gramophone Award for the best debut recording and, in the Fall of 2002, their first recording
on the EMI main label of Schubert quartets was released to great critical acclaim. Their latest disc was released in January
2004 and couples Brahms’s String Quartet op. 51 No. 1 with Brahms’s second string quintet, where the Belcea Quartet are joined
by Thomas Kakuska. Further recordings are planned with Thomas Adès (Schubert Trout Quintet) and Ian Bostridge
(Fauré La Bonne Chanson).
The Belcea Quartet’s repertoire at Wigmore Hall last season incorporated a new commission by Huw Watkins, as well as works
by Adès, Bartók, Beethoven, Brahms, Dvorak, Haydn and Mozart. They joined forces for performances of Schubert’s Trout Quintet
with Thomas Adès and Schumann’s Piano Quintet with Aleksander Madzar and continued their involvement in the Hall’s
extensive education programme. Past collaborations have been with Isabelle van Keulen, Piotr Anderszewski, and Imogen
Cooper.
In the 2003/2004 season, the Belcea Quartet toured extensively in Europe, including their debut performances at the
Helsinki and Schleswig-Holstein Festivals, concerts in Zürich (Tonhalle), Vienna (Konzerthaus), Milan (Societa del Quartetto di
Milano), Amsterdam (Concertgebouw), Brussels (Palais des Beaux-Arts) and Frankfurt (Alte Oper). They made their Spanish
debut, appearing in Seville, Valencia and Bilbao, as well as being resident in Madrid’s Auditorio Nacional de
Musica, where they gave six concerts there throughout the year. They presented a Haydn/Bartok-series together with the Vertavo Quartet at the Aldeburgh Festival in June 2004 and, the following month, appeared as Artist-in-Residence at the
Cheltenham Festival.
In the 2004-05 season the Belcea Quartet will give several concerts in the U.S. (including in New York and Boston)
and future U.S. tours are currently being planned. In the past two seasons, the Belcea Quartet have performed successfully in Japan, Australia and New Zealand and will return to these countries in the future.
The Belcea Quartet was established at the Royal College of Music, where they were coached by the Chilingirian Quartet,
Simon Rowland-Jones, and the Amadeus Quartet. From 1997-2000, they were represented by Young Concert Artists Trust in
London, during which time they were coached by the Alban Berg Quartet, won the first prizes at both the Osaka and Bordeaux
International String Quartet Competitions in 1999, and represented Great Britain in the European Concert Halls Organization
“Rising Stars” series for the 1999/2000 season. The Quartet was one of the selected artists for the BBC Radio 3 “New
Generations” scheme from 1999-2001. The Belcea Quartet are supported by the Royal College of Music’s New Generation
Scheme, the Zurich Financial Services Ltd. and Rosalind and Brian Gilmore. In May 2001, the Belcea Quartet received
the Chamber Music Award of the Royal Philharmonic Society.
For more
information about The Belcea Quartet,
please contact their management at info@artsmg.com.
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