Press Release

The Callino Quartet is an internationally successful string quartet formed in 1999 at the West Cork Chamber Music Festival in Ireland. They regularly broadcast on Lyric FM and BBC Radio 3 and have also appeared several times on RTE television. They have toured in Norway and Holland several times and also appeared at festivals in Lithuania, Italy, France, Germany, Czech Republic and Hungary.
The Callino Quartet has received numerous prizes in international competitions including Second prize at the Tromp String Quartet competition in the Netherlands and a special Jury prize for Haydn at the Premio Paulo Borciani competition in Italy. They have enjoyed collaborations with such diverse artists as the Vanbrugh, Vogler and Belcea String Quartets, double-bassist Edgar Meyer, pianist Barry Douglas, soprano Patricia Rosario and jazz guitarist John Abercrombie.
The Quartet has commissioned and premiered new works by Ian Wilson, Raymond Deane, Ronan Guilfoyle and Finnish composer Kimmo Hakola and worked closely with Edgar Meyer, Peteris Vasks, Alexander Knaifel, and Franghiz Ali-Zadeh on their works for string quartet. Recent performances include appearances at the Cheltenham, Music 21, Sligo New Music and Clandeboye Festivals, concert tours of Scotland as winners of the Tunnell Trust Award, recitals in Ireland and the U.K. and a Wigmore Hall debut performance. In Spring 2010 they look forward to a residency at the Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada and later on this year they will be making their Carnegie Hall début, at the invitation of the Kronos Quartet. They have also been invited to give repeat performances at the West Cork Chamber Music Festival in July and are planning a recording with the Swedish jazz singer Sophie Dunér. In 2007 they released their first commercial CD of works by Ian Wilson on the Riverrun label and in 2009 they released a CD for ‘Louth Sounds’ with premiere recordings of works by Silvestrov and Arvo Pärt. The Callino Quartet's own annual festival takes place over the Easter Weekend in Co. Cork, Ireland.

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