Sarah Sexton Violin

Héloïse Geoghegan Violin

Rebecca Jones Viola

Sarah McMahon Cello

The Callino Quartet is widely considered to be one of the finest young ensembles to have emerged in Europe in recent years. They were formed at the West Cork Chamber Music Festival in 1999 and immediately felt a deep musical affinity. After a highly successful debut performance at the festival they decided to embark on a career together as a string quartet. Since then they have impressed audiences both at home and abroad with their fresh, enthusiastic approach and are now well established on the international stage.

The Quartet has managed to retain this enthusiasm by cultivating a wide ranging and challenging repertoire. They have a thoughtful and historically informed approach to the traditional quartet repertoire as well as enjoying close collaborations with contemporary composers. They have performed with many interesting and diverse performers including the Vogler and Belcea string quartets, double bassist Edgar Meyer, pianist Barry Douglas, singer Patricia Rozario, rock band the Arcade Fire and jazz guitarist John Abercrombie and have also worked with composers Edgar Meyer, Peteris Vasks, Alexander Knaifel, Franghiz Ali-Zadeh, Ian Wilson, Raymond Deane, Ronan Guilfoyle and Kimmo Hakola on their pieces for string quartet. The quartet’s first commercial CD of works by Ian Wilson on the Riverrun label is followed by a recent Louth Contemporary Music Society recording of music by Arvo Pärt, Valentin Silvestrov, John Tavener and Alexander Knaifel.

The Callino quartet celebrate their tenth anniversary year in 2009 with numerous international engagements including performances in Prague, France as part of the Bordeaux festival, Spain, Italy, Ireland and the United Kingdom, where they are resident. Since 2006 they have held their own chamber music festival over the Easter weekend in Bantry House, County Cork. This year they have also been invited to return to the West Cork Chamber Music Festival in July where they will be one of the resident quartets. Other forthcoming engagements include performances at the New Ross International Piano Festival and performances of contemporary music in the National Concert Hall in Dublin as part of the Music21 series.

Winners of several international prizes and distinctions, including most recently the second prize in the 2008 Tromp International String Quartet in the Netherlands, the continued development of the quartet has included studies in 2008 with Professors Walter Levin (La Salle Quartet) and Rainer Schmidt (Hagen Quartet) at the Musik Akademie in Basel, Switzerland. The quartet were also invited to Italy recently to work with the distinguished Hungarian composer and pedagogue Gyorgy Kurtag.

The Callino Quartet take their name from the Irish air " Cailin cois tSuir a me" which means Girl by the River Suir. This song was the first Irish air to be notated in the late 16th century and became known as the Callino manuscript. It is now on display in Trinity College library, Dublin.