Callino Quartet Series: #1 with Tom Poster - Piano

5.30pm
Tickets £10 | Concessions £8, Students & Accompanied Children Under 18 are free

Mendelssohn: String Quartet Op. 44 No 1 in D Major
Mendelssohn: Song Without Words (selection)
Interval - 20 minutes
Brahms: Piano Quintet

The first in a 9 concert festival by The Callino Quartet at Dartington Hall between 19-22 September. The programme is to include Haydn’s Seven Last Words, Mozart’s G minor viola quintet, Brahms piano quintet and Schubert’s ‘Trout’ quintet with special guests viola player Tom Dunn and pianist Tom Poster. We’re also thrilled to have the unique talents of Donald Grant, who will be performing a night of traditional Scottish fiddle music in the festival.

The Callino Quartet is widely considered to be one of the finest young ensembles to have emerged in Europe in recent years. They were formed at the West Cork Chamber Music Festival in 1999 where they immediately felt a deep musical affinity. Since then they have impressed audiences and critics both at home and abroad with their fresh and enthusiastic performances. Based now in London, the Quartet has cultivated a wide ranging, diverse and challenging repertoire. They have performed and collaborated with many diverse musicians at home and abroad. They are winners of several international prizes and distinctions. The quartet were also invited to Italy to work with the distinguished Hungarian composer Gyorgy Kurtàg.

Callino Quartet take their name from the Irish air ” Cailin cois tSuir a me” which means Girl by the River Suir. This song was the first Irish air to be notated in the late 16th century and became known as the Callino manuscript. It is now on display in Trinity College library, Dublin.

Tom Poster - Piano
Tom Poster is internationally recognised as a pianist of outstanding artistry and versatility, equally in demand as soloist and chamber musician across an unusually extensive repertoire. Recently signed to Edition Classics for a series of solo albums, he has been described as “a marvel, [who] can play anything in any style” (The Herald), “mercurially brilliant” (The Strad), and as possessing “velvet-tipped sonority” (Gramophone)

Tom studied with Joan Havill at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where he held a Postgraduate Fellowship, and at King’s College, Cambridge, where he gained a Double First in Music. He was also BBC Young Musician of the Year in 2000.

Tom features regularly on BBC radio and television and has made multiple appearances at the BBC Proms. He has given solo recitals at the Aberystwyth, Brighton, Cambridge, City of London, Edinburgh, Hay, North Norfolk, Presteigne, Spoleto and Two Moors Festivals, as well as in Canada, France, Germany, Spain and Switzerland.

Alongside his busy pianistic career, Tom has appeared as presenter and guest expert on BBC television and radio, given masterclasses at Dartington International Summer School and in Singapore, acted as Artistic Director of Chacombe Music Festival, and moonlighted as conductor, cellist, oboist, recorder player and reciter (Walton’s Façade). Tom’s arrangements of Gershwin and Cole Porter songs have been extensively performed and recorded, while recent commissions undertaken as a composer include two works for Alison Balsom; a chamber opera, The Depraved Appetite of Tarrare the Freak, for Wattle & Daub Figure Theatre; and the soundtrack for Perfect Features’ upcoming feature film, A Million Happy Nows.

For more information visit https://www.dartington.org/whats-on/event/?id=180197