Sunday Concert Series: New Zealand String Quartet

The NZSQ is bringing Beethoven back on his 250th birthday. This is your chance to rejoice in these charismatic and distinctive works, played heart and soul by the NZSQ. Written throughout his life, Beethoven’s string quartets remain, like his symphonies, some of the most remarkable classical music ever composed. Don’t miss this extraordinary music on tour.

“No Beethoven celebration can be joyful enough. It’s almost like celebrating the birthday of music itself.” Leonard Bernstein

Reset your expectations at each of these exceptional and individual quartets. Prepare yourself to trace Beethoven’s evolution from brilliant classicist to daring modernist.
Acclaimed world-wide for their performances of Beethoven’s music, in its 32-year history, the New Zealand String Quartet has forged an international reputation for insightful interpretations, compelling communication, and dynamic performing style.

The NZSQ perform over 80 concerts each year at home and abroad, alongside equally as many education concerts, workshops, and masterclasses. Recent international tours have included performances in Canada, the USA, the UK, Germany, The Netherlands, China, Mexico, and Australia and they have appeared at London’s Wigmore Hall, the prestigious Frick Collection in New York and in Washington’s Library of Congress. For Naxos, the NZSQ has recorded the complete Mendelssohn, Brahms and Berg quartets, and Brahms’ clarinet and string quintets.

The ensemble has been Quartet-in-Residence at the New Zealand School of Music at Victoria University of Wellington since 1991 and in 2019 celebrated 25 years running the Adam Summer School for Chamber Music. Violinist Helene Pohl and violist Gillian Ansell are co-artistic directors of the biennial Adam Chamber Music Festival in Nelson. Gillian, Helene and cellist Rolf Gjelsten have received MNZM honours for services to music in New Zealand.