Music in Highgate Homes: Quartet Concrète
Sunday 17th May 2026
6.30 pm
Venue to be announced (The address of the venue will be emailed to ticket holders well before the event.)
The next concert in our popular Music in Highgate Homes series features a young prizewinning string group called Quartet Concrète who formed at the Guildhall School four years ago and have earned international acclaim for their “exquisite interpretation” and “natural chemistry”.
The name of the group “Concrète” makes a witty reference to the brutalist architectural style of the Barbican buildings where they studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and gives a nod to the 1940s technique of mixing recorded musical sounds. The group enjoy innovative programming and playing a wide variety of genres, but for us their concert will be classical. They will play several pieces across the repertoire in the order in which they were composed to demonstrate the evolution of the string quartet from Schubert and Mendelssohn through to Ravel and Britten.
The concert is the latest in a series which goes back to the 1970s when Yehudi Menuhin was President of the Society, and gives members the opportunity to hear chamber music played as was intended in a domestic setting, with the added enjoyment of wine and canapés in the interval and, weather permitting, a stroll around a private garden.
They were originally organised by Stephen Benson. After him, Sara Kaye ran the programme for 30 years, organising several concerts a year. These became so popular that the Highgate Society decided to continue them after Sara’s death a few years ago.
Sara’s intention was that the concerts should help younger musicians on the threshold of their careers by giving them an opportunity to perform in public. Some of these have gone on to be household names: Thomas Adès the composer and pianist, the cellist Daniel Hope, the violinist Nicola Loud, Martin James Bartlett, Howard Shelley, (two very distinguished pianists) and the Brodsky String Quartet to mention just a few.
Tickets, £32 including refreshments, are available exclusively to members and their guests. To book click here.
