The Forge

The award-winning Mercury Quartet comprises four rising stars of the UK’s contemporary music scene. Performing either as a quartet or alongside internationally renowned guest artists, they perform classic works of the 20th century alongside improvisations, live compositions, new commissions and unknown masterpieces.

Recent projects have included the recording of their Debut CD on the Non-Classical label, and performances of Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire with Julian Jacobson (London/O ford) and Linda Hirst (Dartington) and Elliot Carter’s Triple Duo in London, Dartington, Oxford and France. Recently they worked with Israeli composer Nimrod Katzir; premiering his recent composition ‘AZZA’ in Switzerland. They have also recorded for and broadcast on the Swiss station ‘Radio de la Suisse Romande’ and were invited to appear and perform on BBC Radio 3′s ‘In Tune’ show.

The Mercury Quartet was formed at the Royal College of Music (RCM) to realise a shared passion for Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time. They have performed across the UK and abroad, including the Jacqueline Du Pré Music Building, Holywell Music Rooms, Sheldonian Theatre (Oxford), St. Martin-in-the-Fields, St James’s Piccadilly, The National Gallery (London), The Great Hall (Dartington), as guest artists at the Dinan Conservatoire de Musique (France) and at Festival des Jardins Musicaux (Cernier, Switzerland). They also won a place as artists to be represented by Concordia Foundation in 2007. The Quartet have appeared as artists in such festivals as ‘The Chelsea Schubert Festival’ (2008), ‘The Rosemary Branch Festival’ (2009), ‘The Vienna City of Dreams’ Philharmonia and Esa-Pekka Salonen Festival (2009) and Dartington International Summer School (2010).

In 2008 they won a major competition to discover new talent run by the Non-Classical record label. This led to a number of live free improvisation ‘gigs’ capturing their ‘unique and mesmerising’ free improvisation sound world and a debut CD release on Naxos in November 2010 (distributed in USA, UK, Germany, Holland and Japan).

The Quartet’s commitment to contemporary music has seen them give workshops and premiere many different pieces. In 2009 they visited Kings College London to work with and perform the compositions of the Doctorate students of George Benjamin and in the Summer of 2010 they were resident artists at Dartington International Summer School where they workshopped and performed the compositions of Julian Anderson’s advance composition class, as well as coaching a student ensemble on Pierrot Lunaire.