“Superb storytelling from four great communicators”
The Strad
1st Prizewinner and Audience Prizewinner at the 9th Trondheim International Chamber Music Competition in 2017 and hailed as “brilliantly fresh, unexpected and exhilarating” by The Scottish Herald, the Maxwell Quartet is now firmly regarded as one of Britain's finest young string quartets, with a strong connection to their folk music heritage and a commitment to bringing together wide-ranging projects and programmes to expand the string quartet repertoire.
The quartet performs regularly across the UK, at venues including London’s Wigmore Hall, Purcell Room, Queen’s Hall Edinburgh and Perth Concert Hall. The quartet has toured widely across Europe, with performances in France, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, and Portugal, including at Tivoli Copenhagen, Muziekgebouw Amsterdam, Stavanger Kammermusikkfestival and the Rheingau, Just Classik, Wonderfeel, Lammermuir, Cheltenham and St Magnus Festivals. The Maxwells’ debut tour of the USA in January 2019 garnered critical acclaim from the New York Times “eloquent performers who bring the same sense of charisma and sense of adventure to their programming”, and saw the group performing to sold out venues in New York, Florida, California and Washington. In 2020, the quartet undertook a 35 date tour of the United States.
The Quartet's debut CD on Linn Records was released in March 2019 and featured string quartets by Haydn alongside the quartet’s own compositions based on Scottish traditional folk music. It received unanimously glowing reviews from international press, and reached number 3 in the classical specialist charts. In 2021, the follow-up album Haydn String Quartets Op 74 with Folk Music from Scotland received widespread critical acclaim and reached number 6 in the classical specialist chart, as well as being selected as one of Apple Music’s 10 Best Albums of the Month (Classical). They will release their third album on Linn in 2023.
The 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. The quartet has since held residencies at Oxford University, Perth Concert Hall, Music at Paxton and many chamber music festivals across the UK, including their own festival Loch Shiel in the west highlands of Scotland and a 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.
Passionate about collaborating with musicians and other artforms, 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, the Danish String Quartet, Calidore Quartet, pianist Imogen Cooper, clarinettist Kari Krikku, baritone Roderick Williams. In addition to a busy concert diary, the quartet regularly give schools workshops and concerts for children.The Maxwell Quartet has studied with the Endellion Quartet through a Chamber Studio mentorship programme at King's Place and privately with Hatto Beyerle, founding member of the Alban Berg Quartet, in Hanover. Other mentors have included Miguel da Silva (Quatuor Ysaye), Erich Hobarth (Quatuor Mosaiques), and Krysztof Chorzelski (Belcea Quartet). The quartet plays on violins by David Tecchler and Giovanni Batista Rogeri, a viola by J.B Vuillaume and a cello by Francesco Ruggieri (1670), all on loan from generous benefactors. Additionally they perform on modern instruments by British makers Roger Hansell, John Dilworth and David Rattray.