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Asaka Quartet
This is to say a massive thank you for such a brilliant evening's music-making for us in Edenbridge on Saturday. Your energy, musicianship, enthusiasm and enjoyment were so infectious. The audience loved it, and, as I said, many of us will be following your careers with eager anticipation.
The quartet displayed a remarkable mastery of a varied programme of music. Throughout, the Asaka Quartet brought a youthful exuberance to a testing programme, and thoroughly delighted their audience.
Quartet - String Quartet
Instrumentation
- Iona McDonald - Violin
- Eriol Guo Yu - Violin
- Susie Xin He - Viola
- Jonathan Ho Man Fong - Cello
Repertoire
Bax, Quartet No. 1 in G major
Beethoven, Quartet in G major Op. 18 No. 2
Beethoven, Quartet in C minor Op. 18 No. 4
Brahms, Quartet in C minor, Op. 51 No. 1
Bridge, Quartet No.1 in E minor ‘Bologna’
Mozart, 'Hunt' Quartet No. 17 in B flat major
Haydn, Quartet in D minor, Op.76 No.2 Hob III:76 ‘Fifths’
Haydn, Quartet in B minor Op. 33 No. 1
Mayer Emilie, Quartet in G minor No.1
Mendelssohn, Quartet in E flat major, Op. 12 No. 1
Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel, Quartet in Eb major
Danish String Quartet selection
Price Florence, 5 Folk Songs In Counterpoint
Prokofiev, Quartet No. 2 in F, Op. 92
Shaw Caroline, ‘Entr’acte’
Biography
The Asaka Quartet is an upcoming string quartet formed in 2021 at the Royal Academy of Music in London. In October 2021, after playing for only a week, they were selected for the prestigious Frost Trust Advanced Specialist Strings Ensemble Training Scheme (A.S.S.E.T.) at the Academy where they were mentored by Martin Outram. After just 6 months of working together, they were delighted to have been appointed as Chamber Music Fellows at the Royal Academy for 2022/23.
Asaka are delighted to have been selected for The Stoller Hall’s Emerging Artists Scheme and are also one of Chamber Music Scotlands ‘Ones to Watch’ for 2022/23.
In June 2022, they attended the Tunnell Trust's Chamber Music Coll course upon invitation by Jonathan Tunnell where they studied with Richard Deakin, Charles Tunnell, Scott Dickinson and Jonathan Tunnell, working and performing alongside Sylva Winds and the Ferrante String Quartet. In July 2022 they were delighted to have been awarded 1st prize in the Wolfe Wolfinsohn String Quartet Prize at the Royal Academy of Music for their performance of Beethoven’s String Quartet Opus 18 No.2 in G major. Upcoming projects in the Spring include an International Women’s Day recital featuring all female composers. Upcoming engagements include a residency with Ferrandou Musique in May 2023, recitals at the prestigious Petworth Festival in July 2023 featuring a premier of a new work for string quartet by composer Ned Bigham and a tour of Hong Kong in November 2023 as part of the Sir Elton John Global Exchange Programme.
They have enjoyed working with and coaching young musicians from the Poole Society for Young Musicians and in September 2022 presented workshops introducing the String Quartet to Primary school children across Exmoor as part of the Two Moors Festival.