Diversity and the British String Quartet
Primary Investigator:
Departmental Lecturer in Historical Musicology
Co-Investigator:
Associate Professor, Faculty of Music
Fellow of Somerville College
Researchers:
Lauren Braithwaite and Aaliyah Booker (Faculty of Music)
Partner organisations:
Collaborators:
St Gregory the Great Catholic School, Oxford
St Marylebone School, London
Graveney School, London
Framingham Earl High School, Norfolk
Trinity Catholic School, Nottingham
About the project:
Diversity and the British String Quartet brings together composers, performers, students, and academics to explore issues of diversity in British classical music through the case study of the string quartet. The string quartet - and British classical music in general - are associated with elitism and exclusivity, yet historically the genre has attracted composers who defy this stereotype: women, BAME musicians, communists, and others from traditionally marginalised groups such as Ethel Smyth, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, and Elizabeth Maconchy. In this project, the Villiers Quartet and Oxford researchers will: commission and release as digital concerts new string quartets from British composers with varied connections to national identity; coach remotely 14-18 year old students from schools with low access to music education or diverse student bodies to compose their own string quartets with mentoring from Oxford students; and produce a live-streamed symposium with lectures, round-table discussion with composers, student workshops, and performances of historic British quartets.
See more information on the Symposium that was held as part of this project here.
