The Julian String Quartet

The programme starts with Purcell: a selection of dance movements from his semi-opera “The Fairy Queen”, composed as incidental music to Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, plus three of the Fantasias for strings. Whilst the dances show Purcell’s deft hand, charming and light, the fantasias plumb the depths of Purcell’s inventiveness in counterpoint and harmony, with themes folding around each other in inversions, diminutions and expansions, much as Beethoven does in his late quartets. The Fantasias will be interspersed with a selection of poems by John Donne .  The second half of the evening weaves together a Beethoven quartet with the poem Little Gidding, one of T S Eliot ‘s Four Quartets. Eliot listened to Beethoven’s late quartets as he wrote the poems. Little Gidding is the last of the poems, and Opus 135 is the The name Julian Quartet arose from the group's study of these works. Eliot quotes Dame Julian of Norwich, the 14th Century Mystic (whose “Revelations of Divine Love” are the earliest surviving English language works by a woman), in his Four Quartets: “All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well”. We were fortunate enough to perform this programme in the secluded chapel of Little Gidding itself. The poems are read at our performances by various people close to us to whom the words and music have meant much.   The Quartet were fortunate to perform this programme last Summer to a specially invited audience in the secluded chapel of Little Gidding itself.  

Mary Nash  (Reader) trained at The Central School of Speech and Drama where she was awarded the Sylvia Strutt Memorial Prize for verse speaking and literary appreciation. She taught Drama for many years and had a longstanding association with two charities which provide audiobooks for those who find it difficult to read print: The Listening Library who invited her to compile their first children's section, and Calibre for whom she was a popular reader for over two decades.

Jean Paterson (Violin) performs all over the world with English Baroque Soloists, The Sixteen, English Touring Opera, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Oxford Bach Soloists and Instruments of Time and Truth.

Lucy Hewson (Violin) Is much in demand as a freelance violinist. She has worked with D'Oyly Carte Opera, Carl Rosa Opera, English National ballet and English Sinfonia. She is violinist with the Bath Pump Room Trio.

Nichola Blakey (Viola) gives concerts and recitals across the UK and abroad with ensembles and orchestras as diverse as Ex Cathedra, Collegium Musicum 90, The Brook Street Band, Solomon's Knot, The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra.

Cressida Nash (Cello) has a joint background in Music Therapy and Performance. She has given recitals as far afield as India and South Africa and enjoyed performing and recording chamber repertoire with a number of groups including Trio de L'Aer, Ensemble Burletta and The Kertész Quartet.