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Akoka Quartet (2012)

Four talented musicians have combined to create an exciting new group - The Akoka Quartet. The members are all New Zealanders who have been studying and performing in the United Kingdom and Europe, each with an impressive biography. Clarinetist Sarah Masters graduated from the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester with M Mus and Postgraduate Diploma, and currently performs in the UK's top professional orchestras including the Hallé Orchestra and the BBC Philharmonic.

Violinist Simeon Broom has been a finalist in the Beares Solo Bach Competition in London and was the winner of the Duo-Sonata Competition 2009 at the North London Music Festival with pianist Rachel Church. Rachel completed her Masters at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama after studies at the prestigious Hochschule für Musik in Cologne. Described as "a musician of rare quality" by The Strad and "beautifully sensitive and composed" by the Times, cellist Victoria Simonsen has won a number of competitions including the 1998 Royal Overseas League Strings Competition. Their programme is based around Olivier Messiaen's astounding Quartet for the End of Time, a work that was first heard on a brutally cold winter's night in 1941 in a German prisoner-of-war camp and was written for the instruments and players Messiaen found among his fellow inmates.

The programme includes Oliver Messiaen's Quartet, and pieces by Milhaud and Fauré.

View Programme Notes