St Martins Voices, Piatti Quartet & Andrew Earis
Biographie St Martins Voices, Piatti Quartet & Andrew Earis
St. Martin’s Voices
is one of the UK’s most versatile, professional vocal ensembles. They sing for concerts, broadcasts and special services at London’s iconic St Martin-in-the-Fields and beyond, and perform alongside the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, London Mozart Players, Southbank Sinfonia, and Will Todd Ensemble. They have toured to the USA and South Africa as well as undertaking extensive tours across the UK. The choir regularly feature in broadcasts including BBC Radio 3 Choral Evensong, BBC Radio 4 Sunday Worship and Classic FM. In response to the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic, St Martin’s Voices have extended their digital recording projects, as well as featuring in the Church of England’s online worship resources that have attracted more than four million downloads.
Piatti String Quartet
Resident Quartet at Kings Place, London, the distinguished Piatti Quartet are widely renowned for their ‘profound music making’ (The Strad) and their ‘lyrical warmth’ (BBC Music Magazine). Since their prizewinning performances at the 2015 Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition, they have performed all over the world and made international broadcasts from many countries.
The Piattis are famed for their diverse programming and for passionate interpretations across the spectrum of quartet writing, and have commissioned and recorded some of the most major and impressive works added to the quartet canon in recent years.
Since their inception they have always had projects in the recording studio with critically acclaimed releases through Linn, Rubicon, Somm, Champs Hill, Hyperion, Delphian, Nimbus and NMC record labels. Their wide ranging discography and repertoire is thanks to their enthusiasm and curiosity in collaborating with a broad range of artists including some of the most recognisable names in classical music such as St. Martin’s Voices, Nicky Spence, Julius Drake, Michael Collins, Barry Douglas, Janina Fialkowska, Melvyn Tan, Ian Bostridge, Katherine Broderick, Adam Walker, Simon Callaghan and the Belcea Quartet. Accolades in 2023 include a Presto Music Award as one of the ‘Top 10 Recordings of the Year 2023’, a Gramophone’s ‘Editor’s Choice for the Month’ with NMC, a five star review from BBC Music Magazine with Delphian and in 2022 they were nominated for ‘Recording of the Year’ with both Limelight and Gramophone for their collaborative disc on the Hyperion label.
Contemporary music has been ever present in their repertoire and leaving a legacy to the quartet genre through commissions is one of the quartet’s central tenets. Major commissions and dedications have stemmed from Mark-Anthony Turnage, Emily Howard, Charlotte Harding, and Joseph Phibbs whilst they have premiered a mesmerising number of new works over the years beginning with Anna Meredith back in 2009. The Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Flagey Radio Hall Brussels, Wigmore Hall London, and the Aldeburgh Festival are some of the high profile occasions where new music has been presented and recordings of Turnage’s quartets 1-4 and Gavin Higgins’ chamber music has also been extensively lauded by critics.
Historical research into quartet music that has been undiscovered or deserves to be better known has led to the premiere recording of Ina Boyle’s (Ireland) SQ in E minor, and performances of lesser known quartet gems by Ralph Vaughan Williams, E.J. Moeran, Rachmaninov, Ireland, Haas, Ulmann, and Durosoir.
The quartet’s name is dedicated to Alfredo Piatti, a 19th Century virtuoso cellist who was a professor at the Royal Academy of Music (the alma mater of the founder’s of the quartet) and also a major exponent of chamber music and contemporary music of his time.
Andrew Earis
is Director of Music at St Martin-in-the-Fields, where he has overseen the growth of the music programme to now encompass a broad programme of concerts, worship services and special events. Andrew directs the church’s flagship professional ensemble, St Martin’s Voices, who regularly collaborate with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields and the Piatti Quartet. Alongside his work at St Martin’s, Andrew acts as music consultant to the Church of England, and is a frequent contributor to the BBC’s religious output as producer and conductor. In 2022 Andrew was made an Associate of the Royal School of Church Music and was also awarded the Thomas Cranmer Award for Worship by the Archbishop of Canterbury.
