Archive
Navarra
Quartet
string quartet
BBT
Fellowship Winner
2007
Magnus Johnston violin
Marije Ploemacher violin
Simone van der Giessen viola
Nathaniel Boyd cello
In 2008 the Navarra Quartet won the Outstanding Young Artist Award at the MIDEM Classique Awards in Cannes and in 2007 received a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship, culminating in a highly acclaimed disc of Haydn’s Seven Last Words. They won 2nd Prize in the 2007 Melbourne and 1st Prize in the 2005 Florence International Competitions. At the opening of the 2009/10 season the quartet returned to Australia to give concerts under the auspices of Musica Viva. They went on to appear at Wigmore Hall, Bath Festival and Aldeburgh, and gave recitals in France (as Laureates of the Aix-en-Provence Festival), Switzerland, Italy, Ireland and the Netherlands. In 2010 the Navarra Quartet released their first CD for Challenge Records of Peteris Vasks’ Quartets to critical acclaim and were nominated for the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik. They took part in the BBC Proms Chamber music series at Cadogan Hall with pianist Francesco Piemontesi and made their debut at the Berlin Konzerthaus. Future engagements include return visits to Wigmore Hall, Bath Festival (broadcast by Radio 3) and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. The quartet was formed in 2002 at the Royal Northern College of Music under the guidance of the late Dr Christopher Rowland and Alasdair Tait and latterly as postgraduate students of the Alban Berg Quartet in Cologne. Over the last two years the Quartet has increasingly developed their international profile, appearing at major festivals and venues throughout Europe including the Philharmonie in Luxembourg, the Schwetzinger, Rheingau and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festivals and the Kattegat and Sandviken Festivals in Sweden.
Last updated: January 2011
Photograph taken by Sussie Ahlburg
Project: Haydn Seven Last Words of Christ on the Cross, Altara Classics CD
"...vivid sense of dramatic expression in an intensely detailed performance"
George Hall BBC Music Magazine September 2009
- Help with concert clothes
- Website design
- Travel costs
- Coaching
- Purchase of music
- Support for recording of Haydn's Seven Last Words for Altara
- and making of video/CD Rom of the project
The BB trust fellowship has enabled us to pursue our artistic goals with freedom and integrity by providing us with vital support both personally and financially. At an imperative time in our careers we have benefitted from the huge amount of knowledge and experience of those at the BB trust and the great artists attached to it. This unique support is truly a gift which continues to nourish our development.