The Sacconi Quartet have announced their line-up for the 2015 Sacconi Chamber Music Festival. Internationally acclaimed musicians including pianist Charles Owen, double- bassist Chi-chi Nwanoku and Bellowheads frontman Jon Boden will be joining the Sacconi Quartet for the eighth annual Sacconi Festival 'Intimate Voices', which will run from 15th-17th May 2015 in Folkestone, Kent.
Ben Hancox, Hannah Dawson, Robin Ashwell and Cara Berridge are the Sacconi Quartet, a British string quartet formed at the Royal College of Music in 2001, who established the Festival in 2008. The Festival has since grown into a significant eventin the Kent, and national, cultural calendar.
The theme this year, 'Intimate Voices', takes its name from the cryptic inscription in the score of Sibelius' String Quartet in D minor. Festival Manager Rhian Hancox says: “It is this notion of music as an expression of intimacy, sometimes of love, a way of talking without words, without language and the close relationship between performer and audience that we aim to convey at every Sacconi Festival. In fitting with the theme, many of the chosen works for SCMF 2015 are intimate dialogues or have been written for, or dedicated to people with whom the composers had special relationships.”
Twenty-eight musicians will perform 12 pieces in 5 concerts over 3 days. The programme includes performances of Bach's Piano Concerto in D minor, Mendelssohn's exhilarating Octet, Tchaikovsky's Piano Trio, Schubert's Piano Sonata in B flat major, Shostakovich's Piano Quintet in G minor and quartets by Haydn, Sibelius and the epic Beethoven String Quartet, Opus 131. For full programme details visit www.sacconi.com/festival.
The theme of close communication carries into the Sacconi Quartet's Festival Outreach Programme. Second Violinst Hannah Dawson says: “Our Outreach Programme aims to take the intimacy of chamber music performance to those who have little or no experience of this great art form. Areas of Folkestone are amongst some of the most deprived in the country, and many children we encounter have never heard any classical music before. We aim to give them an unforgettable experience, that's fun, interactive and stimulates their imagination.”
This year the Quartet will be conducting a series of chamber music workshops in schools and community groups in Folkestone.
