Fyrish String Quartet - 17 September 2023, 2.30 pm.

Cowal Music Club is looking forward to a highly attractive concert this Sunday afternoon, September 17th, at 2.30pm in Dunoon Burgh Hall, when the Fyrish String Quartet, - Joe Hodson & Emma Donald (violins), Sarah Leonard (viola), and Tim Cais (cello) will perform.

This Scottish Quartet was formed in 2017, and is described as “a young, vibrant ensemble”, with glowing press comments such as “The Quartet brought a wonderful energy and spontaneity to their interpretation of the music, as well as an impressive technical assurance”. Each member excelled during their studies around 10 years ago, when they received tuition from some of the UK’s leading musicians.

Their leader, Joe Hodson, - known as “Primo Joe” to the others, is a freelance violinist and has played with the RSNO, Scottish Ballet Orchestra, and the Ulster Orchestra, while Emma Donald, who has a First Class Hons degree from Edinburgh University, also plays with the Highlands-based ‘Mahler Players’. Sarah Leonard (viola) studied at The Royal Scottish Conservatoire (RCS), where she won the Mable Glover String Quartet Prize, before further study in solo performance at the Royal Northern College of Music. Tim Cais (cello), is an accomplished singer, teacher and arranger as well as cellist. He graduated with B.Mus(Hons) from Edinburgh University in 2013 and gave a solo recital on the Edinburgh Fringe just five weeks ago.

Apart from the wonderful glowing ‘Sunrise’ Quartet op 76 by Joseph Haydn, and the G minor Quartet op 13 by the outstanding Danish composer Carl Nielsen, Sunday’s programme will feature an arrangement of “Dark Lochnagar” by Seonaid Aitken, two movements for Quartet by Rebecca Clarke, and finish with a new work, just premiered in April this year entitled (evocatively), “The Sound of Sleepless Kings” by quartet member Emma Donald.

One critic wrote recently of the Quartet, “Their joyous performance could not help but bubble over and give the audience enormous pleasure”. –

Good reason to go along and enjoy!