Consone Quartet

The first period instrument string quartet to be selected as BBC New Generation Artists, the Consone Quartet are known for their honest and expressive interpretations of repertoire, notably from the classical and romantic eras.

Formed at the Royal College of Music in London, the Consone Quartet launched their professional career in 2015, shortly after which they were awarded two prizes at the 2015 York Early Music International Young Artists Competition, the EUBO Development Trust Prize and a place on the EEEmerging Scheme in France. They went on to win the 2016 Royal Over-Seas League Ensemble Prize and, in 2022, were awarded a prestigious Borletti-Buitoni Trust fellowship.

Since 2021 the quartet has been awarded a number of grants from Continuo Foundation, which have enabled the group to take creative programmes to locations across the UK. The quartet has been enthusiastically received at London’s major venues, as well as further afield in Poland, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Austria, Bulgaria, Slovenia and across North America. Festival invitations include Edinburgh, Cheltenham, Dartington, Two Moors, Buxton, MA Festival in Bruges, Heidelberger Streichquartettfest, Schwetzingen Festival and Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in Germany, and Styriarte Graz in Austria. Recent performing highlights have included a North American tour with Kristian Bezuidenhout and collaborations with the Chiaroscuro Quartet, Helen Charlston and Alexander Gadjiev.

In 2023, the Consone Quartet premiered The Bridges of Königsberg, a string sextet by Gavin Bryars, commissioned by friends of the Quartet, the Borletti-Buitoni Trust, and BBC Radio 3, broadcast from St Martin-in-the-Fields. The piece was recently recorded and will shortly be released on Gavin Bryars' own record label.

Consone's collaboration with composer Oliver Leith continues a developing commitment to contemporary music, showcasing his seven-movement quartet On a horse, on a hill, faraway, through fog and bonfire, which they will also perform at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam.

Education work remains a core interest to the group, having worked with students at the Royal College of Music in London, Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester, the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama as Hans Keller fellows for 2020-2022. 2025 sees the quartet working with students at New England Conservatory in Boston and continuing their community work in South Yorkshire as 'visiting quartet' for Sheffield's Music in the Round, supported by the Frost Trust.

Consone’s debut recording explored music by Haydn and Mendelssohn and was described by The Strad as an album 'that instantly leaps out of the stereo at you as something special'. In Spring 2023 they released the first of three recordings with Linn Records, centring around Felix Mendelssohn. The album, featuring both the ‘1823’ and Op. 44 No. 3 quartets, has been described as ‘top-notch’ (Allmusic) and ‘exquisite’ (Pizzicato). The project continued with an album featuring two further quartets by the composer, alongside his sister Fanny Mendelssohn’s string quartet in Eb major, released in November 2025. The final volume will be released in 2027.