Solem Quartet

The versatile Solem Quartet combines traditional chamber music performances, including both established and contemporary repertory, with cross-genre experiments such as gaming and acousmatic music. In 2020, the group undertook a cycle of Beethoven and Bartók quartets, combining them with newly commissioned works. The Solem Quartet was formed by violinists Amy Tress and William Newell, violist Stephen Upshaw, and cellist Stephanie Tress at the University of Manchester in 2011. The group took its name from the university's motto, "arduus ad solem," meaning "striving toward the sun," and some of its first performances focused on Haydn's "Sun" quartets, Op. 20. The Solem Quartet studied with top musicians in the chamber field and otherwise, including Gábor Takács-Nagy, Thomas Adès, and Michal Kaznowski, and the members took courses with the Chilingirian, Dante, and Maggini Quartets. The quartet attended programs at IMS Prussia Cove and the European Chamber Music Academy and were selected for the prestigious ChamberStudio Mentorship 2014/2015, which facilitated studies with cellist Christoph Richter at London's Kings Place venue. In 2016, the Solem Quartet began a stint as quartet-in-residence at the University of Liverpool. In the late 2010s, the group began a new residency at the Aberystwyth MusicFest in Wales. The quartet issued the album The Four Quarters on Orchid Classics in 2021.
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