Patrons:
Peter Donohoe CBE
Sir Peter Maxwell Davies CBE
Sir Simon Rattle CBE

The Maggini Quartet are grateful for the support provided by
Stentor Music Co Ltd

The Maggini Quartet are renowned for their educational work, which covers a variety of areas including schools work, chamber music coaching at all levels and work with orchestras. They have several long-running residencies and affiliations, and are committed to encouraging new musicians and audiences to share their enthusiasm for chamber music.

The Quartet's international activities have included coaching at Oberlin and Yale in the USA. Since 1997 they have made annual summer visits to Norway for a fortnight of chamber music coaching and concerts hosted by the Norwegian Chamber Music Society, Norway's foremost chamber music organisation.

In the UK the Maggini are one of the leading ensembles working in the educational field. During their eight years as visiting quartet to the University of Southampton they undertook string and chamber music teaching as well as coaching the University orchestra. They were appointed Quartet in Residence at Canterbury Christ Church University in 1994, and in January 2004 this fruitful 10-year collaboration with the Music Department was marked by the award of Honorary Fellowships. Since 1995 their affiliation with Brunel University, Uxbridge, has led to a variety of performance and teaching projects and they were awarded Honorary Fellowship in November 2004.

Members of the Maggini Quartet have coached chamber music at the Royal Academy of Music, the Royal College of Music, and Trinity College of Music, London, and worked with the National Youth Chamber Orchestra of Great Britain. They have also given individual masterclasses in their own instruments at Birmingham Conservatoire, the Royal Academy of Music, Trinity College of Music, schools in Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire and Redbridge Music Centre.

The Maggini Quartet have a serious commitment to working with children, not only as a way of ‘spreading the word’ about chamber music, but also to experience the excitement of the interactive learning process. Concerts and schools workshops have been an important feature of their residencies at Shrewsbury School and Brunel University, and afternoon concerts introducing chamber music form a regular part of their UK tours. They also coach twice-yearly chamber music courses for schools in Bedfordshire.

The Quartet recently concluded a unique project with Sir Peter Maxwell Davies (Master of the Queen's Music), performing and recording his ten Naxos Quartets. Written for the Maggini and commissioned by Naxos,works have been widely acclaimed in the UK and Europe. This repertoire has provided opportunities for additional collaboration with Canterbury Christ Church University, which hosted open rehearsals of all the works and has compiled a major archive covering the whole of this five-year project. The Maggini have also worked with the Wigmore Education Department on schools activities linked to their annual Wigmore Hall performances of the Naxos Quartets.

Courses and Summer Schools

The Maggini Quartet's chamber music courses are a long-standing feature of their schedule, and immensely popular. Their involvement with Oxford Chamber Music Weekends dates back to 1984 and they now run four courses annually. They have coached at Chamber Music Weekends for Benslow Music Trust since 1992, and their courses at Brunel are always popular. see Brunel course information here
Other annual courses include Wellington College, Berkshire, and Farncombe Estate (near Cheltenham). They took part in the Charterhouse Summer School for ten years, and have held chamber music weekends at Birmingham Conservatoire.

Maggini courses 2010

Maggini recommended editions

A new venue in Durham:
Maggini Quartet Summer School 25-30 July 2010

For more information about courses please contact Maggini Administration