Archive
Navarra
Quartet
string quartet
BBT
Fellowship Winner
2007
Xander Van Vliet 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. They were selected for representation by YCAT in 2006 and in 2007 received a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship. Formed in 2002 at the Royal Northern College of Music under the guidance of the late Dr Christopher Rowland, and latterly as postgraduate students of the Alban Berg Quartet in Cologne, they are now Quartet in Association at the RNCM. The Quartet has won numerous prizes and awards, including Second Prize in the 2007 Melbourne International Competition and First Prize in the 2005 Florence International Competition. They have taken part in the International Musicians Seminar at Prussia Cove and during 2008 were resident quartet at the Britten-Pears School in Aldeburgh and at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland. Over the last year the Quartet has given debut concerts at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Philharmonie in Luxembourg, Schwetzinger and Rheingau Festivals in Germany, the Aix-en-Provence and Bellerive Festivals in France, the Kattegat and Sandviken Festivals in Sweden and the City of London Festival. They took part in the Haydn series at Wigmore Hall broadcast by BBC Radio 3 and recorded a highly acclaimed disc of Haydn’s Seven Last Words for Altara Records, supported by the BBT. Engagements during the 2009/10 season include return visits to Wigmore Hall, Bath Festival and Aldeburgh, a series of recitals in France as Laureates of the Aix-en-Provence Festival, concerts in Switzerland, Italy, the Netherlands and Bahrain and a tour throughout Australia. In 2010 the Quartet record their first CD for Challenge Records.
Last updated: February 2010
Photograph taken by Hanya Chlala
"...vivid sense of dramatic expression in an intensely detailed performance"
George Hall BBC Music Magazine September 2009
Project: Haydn Seven Last Words of Christ on the Cross (Navarra Classics CD)
- 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.