In a programme of contrasts, Ensemble Jackalope demonstrates the breadth of repertoire for piano quartet with music by Bridge, Thorvaldsdottir and Schumann.

Winner of the Leeds International Piano Competition 2024 Chamber Music Prize, Junyan Chen, brings her piano quartet to Chamber Music in Residence with ensemble members Charlotte Spruit, Edgar Francis and Hugh Mackay.

Bridge’s Phantasy Piano Quartet blends Romantic warmth with early 20th-century English nuance. Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s Shades of Silence offers a striking shift, exploring an atmospheric and eerie sound world of delicate string textures and moments of stillness. The energy steps up with Schumann’s radiant Quartet in E flat, an earlier work for this combination of instruments, showing the beauty and drama of the early-Romantic style.

Ensemble Jackalope are supported by The Barbara Whatmore Charitable Trust.

Ensemble Jackalope:
Charlotte Spruit violin
Edgar Francis viola
Hugh Mackay cello
Junyan Chen piano