Christoph Richter coaches the Treske Quartet
Mendelssohn Quartet no. 6 in F minor
(Please note Widmann’s Quartet no. 3 will be performed at a later date)
Princess Alexandra Hall, Royal Over-Seas League
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Oliver Baily and Mollie Wrafter, violins
Abigail Hammett, viola
Robert Wheatley, cello
The Treske Quartet is an emerging ensemble based in Manchester, UK. Our identity as a quartet lies in our commitment to championing repertoire by 20th & 21st century composers. Our goal is to curate and perform programmes that include a variety of musical styles by established and emerging composers, and to give audiences radical experiences with new sound worlds. We are interested in concept-based programming, and aspire to deliver concerts where we accompany the audience through a range of composers and eras, worlds and universes, finding new connections between pieces that do not depend on the audience’s prior experience of chamber concerts. We feel that a central tenet of this work will be working with living composers, acting as a platform for their work to be presented and in doing so, contributing to the growing pool of modern string quartet music.
The Quartet was formed in 2017 for a chamber music course in North Yorkshire, and we still play an active role in delivering high quality chamber music in the area. Over the past two years the quartet has given recitals in the UK and abroad, notably the Rydale Festival, Llandeilo International Music Festival, Buxton Recital Series and the New Generation Festival. The Quartet’s members consist of Oliver Baily, Mollie Wrafter, Abigail Hammett and Robert Wheatley, all of whom studied at the Royal Northern College of Music. Collectively we have amassed a wealth of experience as soloists, orchestral and chamber musicians, and as freelancers we regularly appear with professional ensembles and orchestras across the British Isles.
Through the Harrison Frank Family Foundation we are very fortunate to be playing on a set of instruments made from the same tree from the W.E. Hill & Sons workshop.
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Described in The Times as ‘searching, searing and sublime,’ cellist Christoph Richter performs as soloist and chamber musician throughout the world, with musicians such as András Schiff, Miriam Fried, Isabelle Faust, Menahem Pressler, Midori and many others, at festivals including the Salzburg Festival and Marlboro Festival in the US, and with composers such as Heinz Holliger and György Kurtág.
After his studies with André Navarra and Pierre Fournier he won prizes at international competitions which led to concerto appearances with many leading orchestras. His strong interest in contemporary music has led him to work with composers such as Penderecki, Kurtág, Henze, Lachenmann, Holliger, Reimann and Widmann. He has performed the complete works for cello of Brahms and Webern (2008), Beethoven (2009 & 2015), Mendelssohn (2010), Bach (2013) and Schumann (2017) in London. Amongst his recordings are works by Schumann and Holliger for ECM, Klengel concertos for cpo, Mozart Divertimento for Naxos and the Brahms Sextet op.36 for Harmonia Mundi, which received the Diapason D’Or in 2014.
Christoph Richter is professor of cello at the Folkwang University in Essen, Germany, and the Royal Academy of Music in London, at the European Chamber Music Academy and ChamberStudio (London), and gives masterclasses in Europe and the US. He is frequently invited as a jury member for international competitions including in London, Vienna, Weimar and Trondheim.