Elias String Quartet

Sara Bitlloch violin
Donald Grant violin
Martin Saving viola
Marie Bitlloch cello

 

!! Winner Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award 2010 !!

The members of the Elias string Quartet all live in Sheffield but are originally from France, Scotland and Sweden. The Quartet was formed in 1998 at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester . They won all the RNCM quartet awards and became Junior Fellows and then "Associated Quartet". They also spent a year at the Hochschule in Cologne with the Alban Berg quartet.

The Quartet received second prize and the Sidney Griller prize at the 9th London International String Quartet Competition in 2003 (as the Johnston String Quartet). They were finalists in the Paolo Borciani Competition in 2005 and have twice been awarded scholarships from the Hattori Foundation.

They have performed extensively in venues such as the Wigmore Hall, Purcell Room, Snape Maltings Concert Hall, Bridgewater Hall, Fairfield Halls, Stockholm Concert Hall, the Auditorium du Louvre, and Jordan Hall. They are currently Ensemble in Residence at Kettle's Yard in Cambridge and have broadcast live on National Radio in the UK, France and Sweden. They have performed with artists such as Andrew Marriner, Ralph Kirshbaum, Joan Rogers, Mark Padmore, Roger Vignoles, Michel Dalberto, Peter Cropper, Bernard Gregor-Smith, Robin Ireland, and with the Endellion and Vertavo quartets.

The Elias Quartet have been resident string quartet at the Britten Pears School three times where they worked closely with Hugh Maguire, and were subsequently invited to the International Academy of String Quartets. Other mentors in the Quartet's studies include members of the Amadeus, Endellion and Vermeer Quartets, György Kurtag, Gabor Takacs-Nagy, Paul Katz, Rainer Schmidt, Kim Kashkashian and Milan Skampa. In Febuary 2006 they held a week-long residency at the New England Conservatory in Boston . In 2009 the quartet will go on tour in Australia.

The Elias Quartet has released a disc of Mendelssohn Quartets with Sanctary Classics, a disc of French harp music with harpist Sandrine Chatron for the French label Ambroisie aa well as Goehr's Piano Quintet for Meridian Records. The quartet 2009 cd is a live-recording on the Wigmore Live label. A second (live) release on this label came out in 2012.

The Elias Quartet have been resident String Quartet at Sheffield 's Music in the Round as part of the Ensemble 360 from 2005-2009. This ensemble has had their own series at London's  Wigmore Hall since 2007.

Sara plays on an 18th-century Italian violin kindly lent to her by Werner Dickel. Marie plays on an 18th-century Italian cello kindly lent to her by the "Fond Insturmental Francais".

Also visit: www.eliasstringquartet.com