The Australian String Quartet is a prominent Australian string quartet

String quartet

A string quartet is a musical ensemble of four string players – usually two violin players, a violist and a cellist – or a piece written to be performed by such a group...

, which presents an annual program of chamber music

Chamber music

Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...

 throughout Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 and internationally.

Founded in 1985 the ASQ has received critical acclaim both at home and abroad for performances of a diverse range of repertoire, including world premieres of contemporary Australian works. Overseas tours take the quartet to North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

, Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

 and Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

.

The current configuration of the ASQ (Sophie Rowell – first violin, Anne Horton – second violin, Sally Boud – viola, and Rachel Johnston – cello) debuted on 6 November 2006, at the Perth Concert Hall in Perth, Western Australia

Perth, Western Australia

Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....

. The Australian

The Australian

The Australian is a broadsheet newspaper published in Australia from Monday to Saturday each week since 14 July 1964. The editor in chief is Chris Mitchell, the editor is Clive Mathieson and the 'editor-at-large' is Paul Kelly....

newspaper reviewed this performance as being "a triumph".

Previous members of the ASQ are William Hennessy

William Hennessy

William Hennessy is a violinist and concertmaster who has made hundreds of soloist appearances with Australian orchestras. In 2008, he became an Artist in Residence at the Australian National Academy of Music, with duties including performance, violin teaching, and the fostering and coaching of...

, Douglas Weiland

Douglas Weiland

Douglas Weiland is a modern-classical composer.Formerly a violinist - 2 years English Chamber Orchestra, 7 years Academy of St...

, Elinor Lea, Peter Tanfield, Natsuko Yoshimoto and James Cuddeford (violin), Keith Crellin, Esther van Stralen and Jeremy Williams (viola), and Janis Laurs, Cameron Retchford and Niall Brown (cello).

ASQ regularly features Australian guest artists and composers - recently Brett Dean

Brett Dean

Brett Dean is a contemporary Australian composer, violist and conductor.-Career:Dean studied at the Queensland Conservatorium where he received a Medal of Excellence. From 1985 to 1999, Dean was a violist in the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2000, he decided to pursue a career as a freelance...

, Li-Wei, Peter Sculthorpe

Peter Sculthorpe

Peter Joshua Sculthorpe AO OBE is an Australian composer. Much of his music has resulted from an interest in the music of Australia's neighbours as well as from the impulse to bring together aspects of native Australian music with that of the heritage of the West...

 and Graeme Koehne

Graeme Koehne

Graeme Koehne is an Australian composer and music educator. He is best known for his orchestral and ballet scores, which are characterised by direct communicative style and embrace of triadic tonality...

. Recent commissions include From Magdalena's Notebook for Elena Kats-Chernin

Elena Kats-Chernin

Elena Kats-Chernin is an Australian composer.Elena Kats-Chernin was born in Tashkent , and migrated to Australia in 1975.-Europe:...

's 50th birthday.

ASQ presents its own National Season, performing in all major Australian capital cities. In addition, ASQ has an extensive regional touring programme throughout Australia (from small mining towns, to the Northern territory's capital, Darwin) and appears at major international festivals in Adelaide

Adelaide

Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...

, Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

, and Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

. It has established its own chamber music festival held annually in Dunkeld, Victoria

Victoria (Australia)

Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....

.

The ASQ regularly broadcasts for ABC Classic FM

ABC Classic FM

ABC Classic FM is a classical music radio station available in Australia, and internationally online. It is operated by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation . It was established in 1976 as "ABC-FM", and later for a short time was known as "ABC Fine Music" , before adopting its current name...

 and is quartet-in-residence at the University of Adelaide

University of Adelaide

The University of Adelaide is a public university located in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third oldest university in Australia...

, South Australia

South Australia

South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...

.