Navarra String Quartet

The Navarra Quartet has gained a reputation for adventurous programming and poetic playing. The group performs both contemporary and traditional repertory. The Navarra Quartet, often using the name Navarra String Quartet, was founded in 2002 when the players were all standout students at the Royal Northern College of Music. The group's membership was long stable, consisting since the beginning of first violinist Magnus Johnston, second violinist Marije Johnston (née Ploemacher), violist Alexandru-Mihai Bota, known as Sascha, and cellist Brian O'Kane; Marije Johnston was replaced by Bartosz Woroch. The Navarra Quartet studied chamber music at the RNCM with Christopher Rowland and then went on for further study with the Alban Berg Quartet in Cologne and the Pro-Quartet in Paris. The group has served residencies at Switzerland's Verbier Festival and the Aldeburgh Festival in the UK. Several major awards and fellowships propelled the young quartet's career forward, including the MIDEM Classique Young Artist Award and the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship. The quartet took prizes at international string quartet competitions in Banff, Canada, Melbourne, Australia, and Florence, Italy. The group made its recording debut in 2013 on the NMC label with the album Joseph Phibbs: The Canticle of the Rose. In recent years, the Navarra Quartet has been in demand at leading international venues, including Wigmore Hall, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, and that Olympus of chamber music, Esterháza Palace in Hungary. The quartet has performed at the BBC Proms and other major international festivals, and it has toured the U.S., East Asia, and Australia in addition to Europe. The Navarra Quartet has collaborated with a variety of artists from beyond the chamber music field, including pianist John O'Conor, tenor Mark Padmore, and the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. The group is active as providers of master classes to younger players. The group moved to Orchid Classics in 2020 for the thematic recital Love and Death, and to Naxos in 2022 for an album of works by Edward Gregson. In 2023, the group appeared on the Albion label on an album of works for tenor, string quartet, and piano by Ralph Vaughan Williams and Ian Venables. The Navarra Quartet has also recorded the complete string quartets of Peteris Vasks.
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