The Kirker Ischia Music Festival

Matthew Denton & Michelle Fleming, violins, Eoin Schmidt-Martin, viola Emma Denton, cello. The Carducci Quartet is one of the leading quartets of its generation, performing at venues thought the UK and America. They have their own recording label, Carducci Classics and present their own series of concerts each year in May at Highnam in Gloucestershire. 

During 2015 they presented a number of complete cycles of the 15 quartets composed by Shostakovich – this won them the coveted Royal Philharmonic Society Award for Chamber Music in May 2016. Engagements during the 2016 season include performances at the Presteigne Festival, the North Norfolk Music Festival, at the Frick Collection in New York and at Wigmore Hall. The Carducci often take part in the Kirker series of music festivals both on land and at sea.

"Performer, editor, composer and teacher, Simon Rowland-Jones has always led a very busy, all-embracing musical life. He was founder violist of the Chilingirian Quartet, in which he played for a total of ten years, and subsequently performed with many other leading chamber groups. 

His solo CDs, on the Meridian and Etcetera labels, include the first-ever complete version of the Bach Cello Suites on viola. Peters Edition published his viola transcription of the suites shortly after the recording was made and he then went on to make a new critical/performing edition of the Haydn String Quartets. His many works include pieces for viola, four string quartets, a string trio, a piano quartet, songs and ‘A Turn Outside’, a musical adaptation of a play by Stevie Smith commissioned by Dame Josephine Barstow. He teaches viola and chamber music at the Royal College of Music and is co-director of the North Norfolk Music Festival."

Tim Horton studied at Chetham's School of Music with Charles Hopkins, Ryszard Bakst and Heather Slade-Lipkin. He graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge in 1995. In the same year he replaced Alfred Brendel at short notice in two performances of Schoenberg's Piano Concerto with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Sir Simon Rattle at Symphony Hall, Birmingham and the Royal Festival Hall, London.

Since then he has played with the RLPO, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group and Trondheim Symphony Orchestra. In 2005 Tim was chosen as the scholar of the Klavier Festival Ruhr at the recommendation of Alfred Brendel. Tim has a duo partnership with cellist Adrian Brendel with whom he has given tours of Spain, Germany, Italy and the UK, including concerts at the Wigmore Hall, London. He has played regularly at the Plush, Aldeburgh, Bath and Elverum festivals and has collaborated with many leading chamber musicians including Paul Lewis, Peter Cropper, the Elias Quartet, the Vertavo Quartet, Charles Owen and the members of the Kungsbacka Piano Trio.

One of the best-known English tenors, James Gilchrist is equally at home as a concert soloist and a recitalist. Future highlights include performances of the Monteverdi Vespers in Germany, a performance at Oxford Lieder and a concert of his new programme, Debussy Mirrored.