On January 20 at 7:30, the stunning Maxwell Quartet joins us at Sunset Center in Carmel after traveling all the way from Scotland. In January 2020, our Artistic Chair heard this quartet at the Chamber Music America annual meeting in NYC, and was totally enchanted! Subsequently, they were scheduled to appear in Carmel in the 2021-2022 Season, but Covid nixed that opportunity. This has been a hard-won appearance! We have been trying ever since to secure a date, and it has finally arrived! You will be dazzled to hear these uber-talented Scottish chaps performing at top level a mixture of classical gems, Scottish Folk Songs, and works you may not have heard of, but that are beautiful discoveries!

The New York Times wrote about their “…striking arrangements of folk music… their charisma and sense of adventure.” Their program includes historic ‘Scottish work songs’ rewritten for the quartet, two lovely works by composers from the British Isles, and two beloved classics. As the Scottish Herald wrote of a Maxwell performance,

“… brilliantly fresh, unexpected and exhilarating”.

1st Prizewinner and Audience Prizewinner at the 9th Trondheim International Chamber Music Competition in 2017, and heralded by The Strad Magazine as "superb storytelling by four great communicators", the Maxwell Quartet is now firmly regarded as one of Britain's finest young string quartets, with a strong connection to their folk music heritage and a commitment to bringing together wide-ranging projects and programs to expand the string quartet repertoire.

The Maxwells’ debut tour of the USA in January 2019 garnered critical acclaim from the New York Times (“eloquent performers who bring the same sense of charisma and sense of adventure to their programming”), and saw the group performing to sold-out venues in New York, Florida, California and Washington.

The Quartet's debut CD on Linn Records, released in March 2019 and featuring string quartets by Haydn alongside the quartet’s own compositions based on Scottish traditional folk music, received unanimously glowing reviews from international press, and reached number 3 in the classical specialist charts.

The Quartet is formed of four close friends, who grew up playing folk and classical music together in youth orchestras and music schools across Scotland. The group officially began in 2010 at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, where its founding members met as postgraduate students. In 2011, the Maxwell Quartet was named as Residency Artists for Enterprise Music Scotland 2011- 2013. Performing widely across Scotland, the quartet established a reputation for delighting audiences with their "unaffected enthusiasm" (North Highland Times) and their "panache and conviction" (Strathearn Herald). The quartet has since held residencies at Oxford University, Perth Concert Hall, and many chamber music festivals across the UK, including their own festival Loch Shiel in the west highlands of Scotland, and a new self-curated concert series at Guardswell Farm in Perthshire. The quartet currently holds the position of Associate Artist at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow, and at Music at Paxton Festival in the Scottish Borders.

We look forward to seeing you at this ‘must-hear’ concert. You are bound to be as delighted as the rest of the music world. Powerful performers, and done wearing kilts!

Single Tickets are $30-$75. Full Season and Pick 4 subscriptions are also available from

$196-$295. Please call our office for Kids Up Front & Free! - students grades 3-12,

College/

university, and active military discount tickets.

For More Information:

Chamber Music Monterey Bay

831-625-2212

www.chambermusicmontereybay.org