Ligeti String Quartet

Mandhira de Sarem – Violin
Patrick Dawkins – Violin
Richard Jones – Viola
Val Welbanks - Cello

The Ligeti Quartet was formed in 2010 and is dedicated to promoting 20th and 21st century music of both established and emerging composers. The quartet is comprised of graduates from the Royal Academy of Music, Royal College of Music and Oxford University.

They have recently worked with young composers Camilo Mendez San Juan, Rachel Lockwood (premier of String Quartet no. 2) and Gabriel Prokofiev, and have a special interest in experimental music and partnerships with other art forms. In 2010, the Ligeti Quartet performed free improvisations inspired by the paintings of Kenji Yoshida at the October Gallery as part of the Museums at Night series. 2010 also saw the quartet collaborate with Ensemble BPM in a production of Steve Reich's multimedia opera, Three Tales, performed at the Tête à Tête Opera Festival. More recently they have worked with composer Paul Barker in two performance pieces, Sigrún's Fire (Central School of Speech and Drama) and El Gallo (Brighton Festival) with the Teatro de Ciertos Habitantes and the Hillman Quartet.

The Ligeti Quartet are currently the featured artists at the Wakefield Live Music Project in Yorkshire. They perform regularly at The Red Hedgehog in Highgate as resident ensemble, with the generous support of the Mark Zetland Foundation. In July 2011 the Quartet were the resident ensemble supporting Sir Peter Maxwell Davies for his composition course at Benslow Music. The quartet has received coaching from The Chilingirian Quartet, thanks to a donation from the Friends of the West Dean College and was able to receive masterclass coaching from ChamberStudio, with the support of the Richard Carne Trust.