A longtime favorite on the Athenaeum chamber music series, the Maxwell String Quartet returns with a colorful program that opens with their signature dose of Scottish folk tunes, followed by Edmund Finnis’s first quartet, a poetic work that draws inspiration from the choral music of William Byrd, which closes the first half in an arrangement by the Maxwell String Quartet. Brahms’s epic second quartet rounds out this exciting evening.

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Maxwell String Quartet

Athenaeum Music & Arts Library

The Maxwell Quartet is formed of four close friends, who grew up playing folk and classical music together in youth orchestras and music schools across Scotland. The group officially began in 2010 at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, where its founding members met as postgraduate students. In 2011, the Maxwell Quartet was named as Residency Artists for Enterprise Music Scotland 2011- 2013, which saw several acclaimed concert tours over their two-year tenure. Performing widely across Scotland, the quartet established a reputation for delighting audiences with their "unaffected enthusiasm" (North Highland Times) and their "panache and conviction" (Strathearn Herald). The quartet has since held residencies at Oxford University, Perth Concert Hall, and many chamber music festivals across the UK, including their own festival Loch Shiel in the west highlands of Scotland, and a new self-curated concert series at Guardswell Farm in Perthshire. The quartet currently holds the position of Associate Artist at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow, and at Music at Paxton Festival in the Scottish Borders. Passionate about collaborating with musicians and other art forms, the quartet has worked with a global roster of artists and institutions, including theatre company Cryptic, installation artists Wintour’s Leap, the Royal Ballet School, soul duo Lunir, folk duo Chris Stout & Catriona MacKay, cinematographer Herman Kolgen, and many more. In addition to a busy concert diary, the quartet regularly features in broadcasts for BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio Scotland and regularly gives schools workshops and concerts for children.

Maxwell Quartet

Sunset Center Theater

The Maxwell Quartet is firmly regarded as one of Britain’s finest young string quartets with a strong connection to their folk music heritage. Special to this concert will be the premiere of new compositions based on songs associated with the Scottish jute and tweed industries in Dundee and the Hebridean Isles. The Maxwell Quartet, formed in 2010 in Glasgow, Scotland, is now an internationally prizewinning string quartet (2017 Trondheim International Chamber Music Competition) with performances hailed by The New York Times as “eloquent performers … they bring the same sense of charisma and adventure to their performing … the sound of traditional fiddle carried over beautifully into fresh readings of Haydn and Beethoven.” The ensemble holds distinguished guest faculty positions at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow and the Music at Paxton Festival in the Scottish Borders.

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