Aestus String Quartet

Following their sublime performance of Ravel’s String Quartet in last year’s inaugural season, we are extremely excited to have the Aestus String Quartet back to kick off this year's Music in the Heart of Blackburn series.The name “Aestus” comes from the Latin for sea tide and was inspired by the opening of Benjamin Britten’s String Quartet No. 2, the first piece the group performed together.

Since their formation at the Royal Northern College of Music in 2021, the Aestus Quartet have been recognised for their warmth and sensitive musical approach.Their programme opens with the engaging, energetic force of Out of Time (2001), by the British composer Jonathan Dove, written in memory of Peter Allsebrook.

They’ll also be performing an early quartet written by a young Beethoven, and the 2012 piece Valencia by the American composer Caroline Shaw, which celebrates the exquisite perfection of nature found in an ‘ordinary’ orange.The Blackburn concert follows on from the quartet’s recent residency at the Buxton International Festival, performing in Pauline Viardot’s chamber opera Le dernier sorcier scored for string quartet, piano, harp, and percussion.