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Alba Quartet
String Quartet
Tuesday 24 March 2009

Programme


3 Divertimenti Benjamin Britten (1913 - 1975)
String Quartet No. 27 in D major, Op. 20, No. 4 Franz Joseph Haydn (1732 - 1809)
String Quartet No. 7 in F sharp minor, Op. 108 Dmitri Shostakovich (1906 - 1975)
String Quartet in F major Maurice Ravel (1875 - 1937)

Alba Quartet

“Scotland is indeed fortunate to have a young Quartet of this calibre which is prepared to work tirelessly for the advancement of chamber music on all levels.”
Ioan Davies

The Alba Quartet is a young, vibrant Scottish-based ensemble, which is fast establishing itself as one of Scotland's premier quartets. Founded in 2003, it comprises graduates of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow and the Royal College of Music in London. They have toured the music societies and arts guilds of Scotland, been Resident at St. Andrews University, and have given recitals at several of the most important Music Festivals. They have received tuition from many world-class musicians, working most closely with William Conway and the Brodsky Quartet.

Currently the Quartet is the inaugural recipient of Enterprise Music Scotland's prestigious chamber music residency project. This is a new two-year scheme designed to cultivate and encourage fine chamber music playing in Scotland. It provides them with the opportunity to receive expert coaching, and to collaborate with contemporary composers.

Forthcoming engagements include several tours, the premiere of their commission from composer David Fennessy at the S-O-U-N-D Festival, performances of Mendelssohn's celebrated Octet with both the Fejes and Edinburgh quartets, and a planned trip to China in 2009.

Robert Anderson cello
Robert Anderson was born and bred in Glasgow. He attended the Junior Department of the RSAMD for five years, studying cello with Pat Hair and Robert Irvine.

At the age of seventeen he was awarded a scholarship by the RSAMD, continuing his studies with Robert Irvine and David Watkin, and latterly also with Johannes Goritzki. He won several prizes and awards, including the Iain D Watt Award for 20th Century Sonatas and the Mary D Adams Prize for Chamber Music, and graduated with First Class Honours in 2007. He was principal cellist of the Academy Orchestras, which included a performance under the baton of Vlademir Ashkenazy. Robert has performed alongside the Scottish Ensemble, BBCSSO and the Orchestra of Scottish Opera on side-by-side projects and apprenticeship schemes, and has been invited to the Mendellsohn on Mull festival to perform chamber music with Levon Chilingirian, Alisdair Tait and Gabby Lester.

Currently he is completing a Postgraduate Diploma at the RSAMD, and from next year he will study with Alexander Baillie at the Hochschule fur Kunste, Bremen.

Liam Eoin Lynch violin
Liam Eoin Lynch was born in Dunfermline and studied at the Junior Department of the RSAMD with Lise Aferiat before continuing his studies there with Tamas Fejes, graduating with first class honours in 2006.

At the RSAMD Liam led the Academy Symphony and Chamber Orchestras, the modern music ensemble "Academy Now", won the Dunbar-Gerber, Iain D Watt and Mary D Adams prizes and competitions for chamber music, the Eric Dodds Brown Scholarship for outstanding senior violinist, the Wolfson Scholarship, the Bessie Spence concerto prize and the Viola Challenge competition. As concerto soloist he recently performed both the world premiere of John De Simone's Violin Concerto to critical acclaim and Brahms' Double Concerto for violin and cello with the RSAMD Symphony Orchestra. Most recently he has performed Bach's concerto for two violins with fellow quartet member Stewart Webster and the Fife Festival Orchestra.

Further afield he has given recitals of both Scottish traditional and classical violin music in Scotland, Ireland, England, Germany, Romania, Hungary and New York. Currently Liam is living in Perth and combining a chamber music career with violin teaching and freelance work with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.

Hannah Craib viola
Hannah Craib was born in 1985 in St.Monans, Fife and began learning the viola at the age of six with Joan Cuthbertson. When she was fifteen she was awarded a scholarship to study with James Durrant at the junior department of the Royal Scottish Academy in Glasgow and recently graduated from the Royal College of Music in London as a Foundation Scholar where she studied with both Simon Rowland-Jones and Susie Meszaros.

For the past five years Hannah has been invited to the prestigious Mendelssohn on Mull festival where she has performed alongside some of the world's top chamber musicians including Samvel Bersegian, Marcia Crayford, Gaby Lester and Levon Chilingirian. Hannah is a member of Levon's elite chamber orchestra Sayat Nova and is principal viola and one of the artistic directors of young Scottish string orchestra Scottish Connection.

This year Hannah is also a member of the European Union Youth Orchestra and continues to teach both violin and viola and freelance in London.

Stewart Webster violin
Stewart Webster grew up in Lundin Links, Fife and studied at the Junior department of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow with Jerre Gibson and Rebecca Rathbone before going on to study there full time with Tamas Fejes and graduate with a first class Bmus (hons) degree in 2007.

At the RSAMD Stewart has won all of the prizes for solo violin, the Ramsay A. Calder and Dunbar-Gerber prize competitions for chamber music with Romanian pianist Ancuta Daniella-Nite, as well as the Iain D Watt chamber music competition, playing piano with violinist Liam Lynch.

An experienced orchestral musician, Stewart has played with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Orchestra of Scottish Opera, and has led the Academy Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Vladimir Ashkenazy. As a soloist he has recently appeared with the Scottish Borders Symphony Orchestra playing Mendelssohn's violin concerto.

Currently Stewart is completing a Postgraduate Diploma at the RSAMD studying with Justine Watts.


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