About the Maxwell Quartet

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, and "superb storytelling by four great communicators" by The Strad Magazine, 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 and abroad, at venues including London’s Wigmore Hall, Purcell Room, and St Martin-in-the-Fields, with performances through the Park Lane Young Artist Programme, the Tunnell Trust Awards Scheme, and the Kirckman Concert Society programme.

After their success at Trondheim in 2017, the quartet has toured widely across Europe, including performances in the Tivoli Concert Hall Series, the Amsterdam String Quartet Biennale, Stavanger Festival, Trondheim Chamber Music Festival, Schiermonnikoog and Wonderfeel Festivals in the Netherlands, Lammermuir Festival and Music at Paxton in Scotland, and more. Its 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 performing to sold out venues in New York, Florida, California and Washington. Collaborations have included working with the Danish String Quartet to perform Scottish and Danish folk music, and working on a new commission for clarinet quintet with composer/clarinettist Mark Simpson. The Quartet's debut CD on Linn Records, featuring string quartets by Haydn alongside the quartet’s own compositions based on Scottish traditional folk music, received glowing reviews from international press.

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. Performing widely across Scotland, the quartet established a reputation for delighting audiences with their "unnaffected 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 artforms, the quartet has worked with a global roster of artists and institutions including Cryptic Theatre, Wintour’s Leap, Royal Ballet School, Lunir, cinematographer Herman Kolgen and many more. The quartet has also worked with some of the UK's most dynamic composers including commissions by Anna Meredith, Tom Harrold, Mark Simpson and Colin Broom. In addition to a busy concert diary, the quartet regularly feature in broadcasts for BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio Scotland, as well as regularly giving 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, Germany. Other mentors have included Miguel da Silva (Quatuor Ysaye), Erich Hobarth (Quatuor Mosaiques), Krysztof Chorzelski (Belcea Quartet), Donald Grant (Elias) and Alasdair Tait.

The quartet plays on two fine Italian violins, by Castello and Calcanius, generously loaned to them from the Harrison Frank Foundation; a J.B Vuillaume viola, and a Francesco Ruggieri cello, both on loan from generous benefactors.

New York Times
“striking arrangements of folk music… As Sunday’s eloquent performance demonstrated, the players bring the same charisma and sense of adventure to their selections.

The slightly tart, resiny sound of traditional fiddle playing carried over beautifully into fresh readings of Haydn and into the Beethoven. But perhaps the most arresting moment was James MacMillan’s “Memento” from 1994, in which wisps of a melody floated on hazy harmonies and coalesced into heaving sighs before dissolving again into ghostly strains, rendered with a kind of fierce tenderness. CORINNA da FONSECA-WOLLHEIM

France Musique
"With this first recording, these four young Scots set the bar high. Inventiveness, rhythmic energy and irreproachable intonation in a programme conceived around the three Op. 71 Quartets" RODOLPHE BRUNEAU-BOULMIER

The Observer
"After each of the three quartets, the Maxwells add some evocative Scottish folk tunes, providing gentle, wistful punctuations between Haydn’s essays, beautifully serene" NICHOLAS KENYON

BBC Radio 3
“Because they play the music as though they’ve known it all their lives, it seems to make perfect sense. Their Haydn should be enough to earn a recommendation on its own, but interspersed with Scottish tunes it points up Haydn’s way with folk tunes and rhythms and ends with the timeless beauty of Lady MacGregor’s Lament” ANDREW MCGREGOR

The Scottish Herald
"The Maxwells were brilliant in Nielsen's First Quartet... as too was their Shostakovich 10, where they caught the confidentiality of the music by scarcely letting it raise its voice"

"Deeply moving and elegiac...terrifically exhilarating"

"Brilliantly fresh, unexpected and exhilarating... an enlightening and enthralling musical experience" MICHAEL TUMELTY

The Guardian
"Very fine performances from the Maxwell Quartet... a clear and impassioned reading alive to the score's delicate lyricism and need for control" GUY DAMMAN

The Telegraph
"Affectionate and warm... the quartet shone in their hands... a persuasive advocacy" IVAN HEWETT

The Scotsman
"Succinct and beautifully crafted, it felt like every note mattered in the Maxwells’ thoughtful performance...an explosive performance"

“Philip Glass’ String Quartet No. 2 was brought alive by the visceral rhythmic playing of the Maxwell Quartet” KEN WALTON

DEC 2 MON
Stables Theatre Ltd
Wavendon, United Kingdom

DEC 5 THU
Kettle's Yard
Cambridge, United Kingdom

DEC 8 SUN
Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts
Falmer, United Kingdom

DEC 9 MON
The Queen's Hall
Edinburgh, United Kingdom

JAN 5 SUN
Poncan Theatre Co
Ponca City, OK, United States

JAN 6 MON
First Presbyterian Church
Tyler, TX, United States

JAN 7 TUE
Morgan City Auditorium
Morgan City, LA, United States

JAN 9 THU
Harlingen Municipal Auditorium
Harlingen, TX, United States

JAN 12 SUN
Carlsbad Intermediate School
Carlsbad, NM, United States

JAN 14 TUE
Fine Arts Center Theatre
Silver City, NM, United States

JAN 16 THU
Mohave High School
Bullhead City, AZ, United States

JAN 19 SUN
Los Gatos High School
Los Gatos, CA, United States

JAN 21 TUE
Athenaeum Music & Arts Library
San Diego, CA, United States

JAN 23 THU
Lander Valley High School
Lander, WY, United States

JAN 26 SUN
Wallace Jr./Sr. High School
Wallace, ID, United States

JAN 30 THU
Wallenstien theatre
Moses Lake, WA, United States

JAN 31 FRI
Shelton High School
Shelton, WA, United States

FEB 2 SUN
Everett Civic Auditorium
Everett, WA, United States

FEB 3 MON
Egyptian Theatre
Coos Bay, OR, United States

FEB 4 TUE
Grants Pass High School
Grants Pass, OR, United States

FEB 6 THU
Crescent Elk Middle School
Crescent City, CA, United States

FEB 9 SUN
Charlene Powers Lange Performing Arts Theatre
Lodi, CA, United States

FEB 11 TUE
Richards Center for the Arts at Palm Springs High School
Palm Springs, CA, United States

FEB 13 THU
Borrego Springs Performing Arts Center
Borrego Springs, CA, United States

MAR 3 TUE
Ann Nicole Nelson Hall
Minot, ND, United States

MAR 5 THU
Washington Pavilion
Sioux Falls, SD, United States

MAR 6 FRI
Northern State University
Aberdeen, SD, United States

MAR 9 MON
Anoka High School
Anoka, MN, United States

MAR 10 TUE
Marshalltown High School
Marshalltown, IA, United States

MAR 12 THU
Munster Auditorium
Munster, IN, United States

MAR 14 SAT
ORLIN TRAPP AUDITORIUM
Waukegan, IL, United States

MAR 16 MON
Center for the Arts
Platteville, WI, United States

MAR 17 TUE
The Griffin Auditorium
Griffin, GA, United States

MAR 22 SUN
Nashua High School North
Nashua, NH, United States

MAR 24 TUE
Mifflin County High School
Lewistown, PA, United States

MAR 27 FRI
Churchland High School
Portsmouth, VA, United States

MAR 29 SUN
Mathews High School
Mathews, VA, United States

MAR 30 MON
Culpeper County High School
Culpeper, VA, United States

MAR 31 TUE
Seaford Senior High School
Seaford, DE, United States

APR 3 FRI
Severna Park High School
Severna Park, MD, United States

APR 5 SUN
First Congregational Church
Rapid City, SD, United States

APR 18 SAT
Eastwood Park Theatre and Gallery
Giffnock, United Kingdom

APR 24 FRI
Bargemusic
Kings County, NY, United States

APR 25 SAT
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
New York, NY, United States

MAY 5 TUE
Liechtenstein Palace
Hlavní město Praha, Czechia

MAY 12 TUE
St. John the Baptist Church
Whittington, United Kingdom

MAY 13 WED
St. John the Baptist Church
Whittington, United Kingdom

MAY 15 FRI
Glenuig Hall
Glenuig, United Kingdom

MAY 16 SAT
Shielbridge Hall
Acharacle, United Kingdom

MAY 17 SUN
Church St Mary and St Finnan
Glenfinnan, United Kingdom