A New Member for The Flinders Quartet
The Flinders Quartet welcomes its newest member, violinist Nicholas Waters as second violinist Helen Ayres relocates to London with her family. Nicholas Waters joins incumbent ensemble members first violinist Shane Chen, viola player Helen Ireland and cellist Zoe Knighton.
The Melbourne based ensemble regularly performs in Sydney and tours for chamber music presenters such as Musica Viva. They have performed with some of the country’s finest talents, including Slava Grigoryan, Kristian Chong, Ian Munro, Paul Dean, Karin Schaupp, Genevieve Lacey and Jayson Gillham. International engagements have taken them to the UK, Singapore, Canada, and most recently, Sweden and Finland, where they were invited to perform the complete string quartets by Sibelius.
Helen Ayres, who joined the quartet at the end of 2012, will be pursuing other musical endeavours overseas.
Zoe Knighton says“We have been so blessed to have been able to play with Helen Ayres for the past three years, she is a such a positive musical force and her legacy will be heard for many years to come, I’m sure. In particular, we are grateful that we had the chance to get into the studio and record some of the Sibelius quartets with her. It will be a wonderful lasting reminder of Helen’s time in the quartet.”
Flinders Quartet’s new CD, Intimate Voices – Sibelius Quartets is set for release on the ABC Classics label on 4 September 2015.
Nicholas Waters will commence in the second violin chair from October 2015. He has extensive experience and musical maturity, sensitivity and a powerful musical persona. He makes his debut with Flinders Quartet on tour in Victoria in October, performing works by Schumann, Beethoven and the premiere of Melbourne composer Tom Henry’s new string quartet. The tour also features guest pianist, Hoang Pham.
