Smith Quartet

“…the superb Smith Quartet…”

The Times

The Smith Quartet has an established international reputation for its dynamic and original approach to contemporary music. From its foundation in 1989 the quartet has had a close connection with minimalism and, at its debut appearances with the Siobhan Davies Dance Company, it performed two iconic works of the period, Steve Reich’s “Different Trains” and Kevin Volans’ “White Man Sleeps”. The quartet has released many notable recordings including the Complete Quartets of Phillip Glass and Steve Reich’s “Different Trains” both on the Signum label and Michael Nyman”s Quartets Nos. 4 and 5 on Michael Nyman Records.

The Quartet has toured in North and South America, South Korea and Japan as well as many appearances in Europe. In 2005 it featured in the BAFTA and EMMY award-winning BBC documentary film, “Holocaust – A Music Memorial Film from Auschwitz,” marking the 60th anniversary of its liberation. As artists-in-residence at the 2006 Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, the group performed the complete works for piano and strings by Morton Feldman with pianist John Tilbury. It gave the European and UK premiere of Reich’s “Triple Quartet” at the 2011 Cheltenham Festival and the world premiere of Nyman”s 5th Quartet at the Automne en Normandie Festival in 2011. More recently it gave the first performances of Bryars’ 4th and 5th String Quartets at Pisa (2020) and West Malling in (2025).

Future projects include an album of Gavin Bryars music for String Quartet and Voice with Danish soprano Else Torp.