Recitals and Concerts

Manor House Music have developed quite a following for their popular themed classical music concerts for string quartet (usually held in churches throughout Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and neighbouring counties). The themes range from ‘An A – Z of Music’ to ‘A Night In Front of the Telly’ and ‘Traveller’s Tales’, as well as many classical Christmas concerts based on our two successful CDs of Christmas Carol arrangements. Concerts often include a wide variety of music, from classical through to jazz, rock, pop and traditional music and are always friendly and informal in nature, often with announcements and occasional audience participation! If you are interested in booking us for a concert, do get in touch and Vaughan can provide you with a list of possible themes. In addition to these, we are increasingly being asked to perform more serious chamber music concerts. For these we have a vast collection of rarer quartets from the 18th and 19th centuries, in addition to the core repertoire of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert for recitals and concerts.

With an extensive repertoire of music written for Violin and Viola duo, or for Violin and Cello duo we have the flexibility of offering recitals of works for duo, trio as well as the full string quartet. As experienced musicians for arts festivals, the group are happy to collaborate with organisers wishing to hire chamber musicians who are able to come up with imaginative programming.

Manor House String Quartet performing at St Nicholas Church in Cuddington
Manor House String Quartet performing at St Nicholas Church in Cuddington

Our players have performed at many music clubs and appeared at music festivals including the London Festival of Chamber Music, the Buxton, Thaxted and Rye music festivals, Tanglewood, Ravinia, Aspen and Sarasota festivals in the USA. Members of the group have also performed at the Wigmore and Cadogan Halls, St Martin-in-the-Fields, for various music societies and appeared live on BBC Radio 2, Radio 3 and Classic FM. The quartet’s Christmas discs are regularly performed on classical radio stations throughout the world, including Classic FM in the UK.

“…Just want to reiterate what a superb concert you gave – perfectly judged for both the season and our audience. Let’s do it again next year…” (Havering Council’s Music for a Winter’s Night Series, Hornchurch)

“…other quartets would have a real job to match you for arranging skills, enthusiastic playing and pleasure for the audience…the best one so far!” (audience member, Buckinghamshire)

“…The instrumentalists combined beautifully to enthral us with a highly accomplished performance of well-known seasonal music, which did not fail to impress…” (Cuddington village website)