Tinalley String Quartet
Australia
Tinalley Quartet is supported by Townsville Grammar School
Internationally acclaimed for its ‘addictive sound’, ‘intuitive’ music making and ‘technical virtuosity’, the Tinalley String Quartet (TSQ) has established itself as one of Australia’s finest string quartets and most awarded classical music exports.
Formed in 2003, the Tinalley String Quartet was awarded the Grand Prize of the 2005 Australian Chamber Music Competition. In 2007 it captured the music world’s attention winning first prize at the prestigious 9th Banff International String Quartet Competition. The Quartet has performed throughout Australia, Europe, Canada and United States, appearing in such prestigious venues as the Vienna Musikverein, Berlin Konzerthaus, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Bremen Die Glocke, Frankfurt AlteOper and the Sydney Opera House. Within Australia, they have appeared in premier music festivals including the Australian Festival of Chamber Music, the Melbourne International Arts Festival, the Canberra International Music Festival, the Perth International Arts Festival, the Tasmanian Chamber Music Festival, the Huntington Festival, the Port Fairy Festival and the Coriole Festival.
Tinalley String Quartet is a truly mobile ensemble: when they’re not quartetting, Lerida and Justin are principal players with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Adam and Patrick are lecturers at the University of Queensland’s School of Music in Brisbane. The quartet comes together for projects that combine masterpieces of the repertory with new music and collaborations with artists outside of the classical sphere to create new listening experiences.
One such collaboration was Beethoven’s Letters, created by Anna Melville and premiered by Tinalley String Quartet at the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra’s Beethoven Festival. This musical narrative interweaves the Beethoven’s quartets of with his own writings. Beethoven’s Letters returns in 2020 at the sublime Ukaria Concert Hall in the Adelaide Hills, with readings by acclaimed Shakespearean actor and director, John Bell.
To kick off Beethoven’s 250th anniversary year, Tinalley String Quartet presents a Beethoven Festival at Epsom House Ballroom, Pontville, Tasmania. In an extravaganza of Beethoven’s chamber music repertoire, they present eight of the master’s works over a five-concert weekend in early February.
In 2020 Tinalley and singer/songwriter Lior come together again to perform Nigel Westlake’s Compassion in regional NSW as part of Musica Viva’s Countrywide series. In 2018, thanks to generous private donations, the Tinalley String Quartet commissioned Nigel to reimagine his orchestral song cycle in a version for chamber septet and voice. The premiére was the centrepiece of the Chamber Landscapes curation in the 2018 Adelaide Festival.
A 2019 collaboration with one of Australia’s finest composers, Mary Finsterer, saw the emergence of the new quartet, Even the Darkest Night Shall End, a hefty exploration of the concept of hope. Premiered at the Macedon Music Society, plans are brewing for a CD recording of the work.
The Quartet’s 2020 season also features appearances at the Australian Festival of Chamber Music, Arts in the Valley, Kangaroo Valley, and recitals for the Sydney Mozart Society, the Melbourne Recital Centre, and Customs House Brisbane. The Quartet are spreading the good word of chamber music to the next generation of string players through their residency at the University of Queensland’s School of Music.
In recent years, Tinalley has released two new CDs on the DECCA label. In 2018, the centenary of Debussy’s death, they released the Debussy and Ravel String Quartets. In 2019, the first of three CDs honouring the complete quartets of Felix Mendelssohn was released. Reecntly the Quartet recorded the second of this cycle at Ukaria, due to be released in early 2020.
The Tinalley String Quartet is named after the laneway that runs through The University of Melbourne Parkville Campus where the ensemble was formed.
The Quartet is honoured by the Vice Regal Patronage of His Excellency General The Honourable David Hurley AC DSC (Ret’d) Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia .
