History

Major national tour of BEETHOVEN! the Complete String Quartets cycle – a three-series tour to 20 centres in partnership with Chamber Music New Zealand and the New Zealand International Festival of the Arts, including live-streaming all six programmes to audiences around the world.

The Kings Place, London project. A week-long series of events in London curated by the New Zealand String Quartet, featuring New Zealand arts and artists.

European tour to Ireland, Slovenia, Croatia and the Netherlands.

Week-long concert tour to the Jeju Isles Festival in South Korea.

Five-centre tour to the United States and Canada.

Five-concert tour of UK summer festivals.

Performed concerts at the New Zealand Festival of the Arts in Wellington, featuring works by Barber, Shostakovich, Harris and a collaboration with New Zealand baritone Jonathan Lemalu premiering a new Gao Ping work.

Opening performance at the Leipzig Book Fair as part of the New Zealand as Country of Honour programme for the 2012 Frankfurt Book Fair, in concert with New Zealand soprano Madeleine Pierard.

Residencies in Australia at the International Chamber Music Festival, Canberra and Crossbows Festival, Brisbane.

Performed and recorded the Lyell Cresswell Concerto for String Quartet with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.

Recorded Douglas Lilburn’s string ensemble works in Toronto for the Naxos label.

Released new CD Asian Music for String Quartet on the Naxos label.

Celebrated the New Zealand String Quartet’s 25th Anniversary with an event at New Zealand’s Parliament House.

Tutored and mentored 25 young musicians at the annual Adam Summer School in Nelson.

Released CD of music by New Zealand composers, Notes from a journey, on the Atoll label, winning a ‘Tui’ for Best Classical Album in the New Zealand Music Awards.

Nine concert tour of UK summer music festivals including two concerts at the City of London Festival.

Ten city New Zealand tour with soprano Jenny Wollerman, two programmes including Schoenberg’s String Quartet No 2 and Ross Harris’s The Abiding Tides.

New Zealand tour with pianist Péter Nagy of two programmes of Hungarian-inspired music including Bartok, Brahms, Liszt and Ligeti.

Two concert debut at Ten Days on the Island Festival in Tasmania, Australia with Taonga Puoro musician, Richard Nunns.

Released second of three CDs of Mendelssohn’s String Quartets on the Naxos label.

US tour including debut in Library of Congress series.

North American tour of summer festivals and series including Parry Sound and Ottawa Festivals.

New Zealand ten centre tour of multidisciplinary performance of Haydn’s Seven Last Words from the Cross.

New Zealand six city tour of two programmes to celebrate Haydn bi-centenary.

Released first of three CDs of Mendelssohn’s String Quartets on the Naxos label.

July tour of Canadian summer festivals and series. Nine concert tour of Europe including Scotland, Netherlands, Germany, Poland and Czech Republic.

New Zealand six city tour of French composers with pianist Michael Houstoun.

Tours to United States and Canada. Debut appearance at Australian Festival of Chamber Music in Townsville, Queensland.

Released CD of String Quartets by Alban Berg and Hugo Wolf on Naxos label.

New Zealand six city tour of two-concert series of music by Bach and Mendelssohn, including a new arrangement of Bach’s Goldberg Variations for string quartet.

Tours to Korea, North America and Mexico, including two concerts at Festival International Cervantino, Guanajuato.

National tour of Mozart’s six “Haydn” string quartets to mark 250th anniversary of the composer’s birth, and release of souvenir “live” CD of tour.

Return to The Wigmore Hall, London, as part of European tour to England, Scotland, Germany and The Netherlands.

10 year anniversary of musicians in current formation.

New York debut at The Frick Collection.

Released CD of Szekely and Dvorak Opus 51 String Quartets on Atoll Label.

Released CD of Beethoven Rasumovsky Quartets Opus 59 no 2 & 3 on Atoll Label.

Performance of complete cycle of Beethoven’s String Quartets in 7 centres throughout New Zealand to public and critical acclaim (Wellington, Auckland, Palmerston North, Hawkes Bay, Dunedin, Christchurch, Hamilton).

London debut at The Wigmore Hall.

Released Owhiro String Quartets of Gareth Farr on Trust Label.

Released CD of Debussy & Ravel String Quartets on Atoll Label.

Premiered Zoltan Szekely’s recently discovered 1937 String Quartet at the Banff Center for the Arts in Canada.

Released Bartok’s complete cycle of six String Quartets on Manu/BMG label.

Performance of complete cycle of Bartok’s six String Quartets in 6 centres throughout New Zealand (Wellington, Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin, Palmerton North, Hamilton); including all 6 quartets performed in one day in Hamilton.

Helene Pohl joins as first violinist.

Rolf Gjelsten joins as cellist.

Appointed Quartet-in-Residence at Victoria University of Wellington.

Douglas Beilman joins as second violinist.

Gillian Ansell (founding member) changes from second violin to viola.

New Zealand String Quartet established.