Resol String Quartet

Friends joined through their love of chamber music, the Resol String Quartet formed in the Autumn of 2018 at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

Taking their name from the Catalan word meaning ‘reflection of sunlight’, the members of the RSQ come from a great variety of backgrounds and were brought together by their shared vision to make classical music more inclusive and accessible both in the present and for the future.

In a constant pursuit for excellence, these young artists share their joy of music making and act as ambassadors for chamber music. As such, the RSQ feel just as at home in education settings and village halls as they do on the concert platform.
In May 2021, the RSQ was awarded both the First Prize and Audience Prize in the CAVATINA Competition at the Wigmore Hall, representing the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. In the same year, they made their Perth Concert Hall debut, were named as one of Chamber Music Scotland’s ‘Ones to Watch’ and became Live Music Now Scotland Artists.
They also appeared live on BBC Radio Scotland’s ‘Classics Unwrapped’. In 2022 they made their Conway Hall debut as part of its historic ‘Sunday Concert Series’. In the same year they performed on BBC Scotland’s ‘Scotland’s People Award 2022’ alongside Tom Walker. In early 2023 the RSQ was privileged to step in to cover for the Fitzwilliam String Quartet for a
performance in the York Late Music Concert Series. They also spent a week at Snape Maltings as Britten Pears Young Artists, where they were privileged to perform Arthur Bliss’ Oboe Quintet alongside Nicholas Daniel OBE.

In their time at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, the Quartet opened the Rosin Chamber Festival, alongside the world-renowned Brodsky String Quartet. In the same year, the Quartet won First Prize in the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Mabel Glover String Quartet Competition and were awarded the Mary D Adams prize for chamber music. The ensemble were also invited to perform at the RCS for the final-ever concert of their Hilary Rosin Sunday Coffee Concert Series.

The ensemble has run many of their own concert tours across the UK and Europe and continue to do so in all of their seasons. Their West of Scotland tour in November 2021 was in collaboration with classical Saxophonist Richard Scholfield and brought a varied programme of original arrangements to rural island communities. This tour was funded by the National Lottery through Creative Scotland. In 2022 the RSQ was grateful to receive a large grant from the same fund to support their outreach and performance activities for the second half of their 2022/23 season. They were also awarded a grant from the Hope Scott Trust for the same season to support their activities in rural parts of Scotland.

Education is an important aspect of the RSQ’s work. Their latest season saw them visit many local schools in the communities in which they performed, offering heavily or fully subsidised visits thanks to a grant awarded by Creative Scotland. In particular they have worked on several occasions with pupils at Oban High School and Worth School in West Sussex, where in June 2022 they adjudicated the final of their Young Musician of the Year
Competition.

The RSQ has embarked on their third season which includes five exciting programmes, featuring composers ranging from Beethoven to Jessie Montgomery. Their tour in November 2023 took them from Inverness to Devon and across to London, and saw them performing nine concerts interwoven with six educational engagements ranging from primary school workshops to university visits. These performances featured Mendelssohn’s Quartet in a minor, Op. 13, Beethoven’s Op. 59 No. 2, ‘Razumovsky’, and Julian Broughton’s String Quartet No. 4 ‘The Crossing Point’, which was the RSQ’s first newly commissioned work.

They have received masterclasses and coaching from the Brodsky and Fitzwilliam String Quartets, Isabelle Van Keulen, Nicholas Daniel, Richard Ireland through ChamberStudio, Elena Urioste, Tom Poster, David Watkin, Joseph Swenson, Donald Grant, and Manchester Collective.