String Quartet (1937) / Quartet in Eb major Op 51

Acclaimed for its powerful communication, dramatic energy, and beauty of sound, the New Zealand String Quartet performs more than 75 concerts each year in New Zealand and abroad.

The quartet regularly tours North America, Europe and Asia and in 2000 made its debut at London's Wigmore Hall.

The group has been featured on North America's popular public radio programme "St Paul Sunday", and has recorded for Deutsche Welle, CBC in Canada, and Australia's ABC, as well as regularly appearing on Radio New Zealand's Concert FM. Deeply committed to New Zealand music, the quartet has premiered more than 20 works by New Zealand composers.

Distinguished artists with whom the group has collaborated include Anton Kuerti, Alexander Lonquich, Michael Houstoun, Diedre Irons and Hariolf Schlichtig; the Lafayette, Lindsay and Goldner quartets, as well as jazz greats Mike Nock and Jim Hall. The quartet has also performed with The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the NZSO.

The New Zealand String Quartet has been awarded three years sole performing rights to Zoltán Székely's recently discovered 1937 string quartet, premiered by the group in 1999. Székely, a composition student of Kodály, was Bartók's long-time sonata partner and leader of the Hungarian String Quartet.

Dedicated teachers as well as performers, the quartet has been Quartet-in-Residence at Victoria University of Wellington since 1991. In North America it has been guest faculty at the Banff Centre, Quartet Fest West, and the Quartet Programme at Bucknell in Pennsylvania.