Biography

Rosa Hartley (violin)

Aliayta Foon-Dancoes (violin)

David Shaw (viola)

Eliza Millett (cello)

Former Member: Clara Loeb (viola)

Prizewinners of the International Anton Rubinstein Chamber Music Competition (2018) and finalists in the Royal Overseas-League Music Competition (2019), the Echéa Quartet was formed in 2017 at the Royal Academy of Music, London. They are currently Chamber Music Fellows at the Royal Academy and artists for the Concordia and City Music Foundations (2019/20). The quartet are recent recipients of the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Albert and Eugenie Frost Chamber Music Prize (2019/20). The quartet studies with John Myerscough, Levon Chilingirian, Mathieu Herzog, Simon Rowland-Jones and David Waterman.

In 2019, they performed Mendelssohn’s Octet with the Selini Quartet at the Musikverein (Vienna) and collaborated with Marin Alsop at the World Economic Forum (Switzerland). The quartet were featured on BBC Radio 3’s In Tune, and more recently on CBC National Radio (Canada) as part of their six-week tour of the west coast of North America. They have appeared at international festivals such as Ferrandou Musique (France), Festival de los Siete Lagos (Argentina), West Cork Chamber Music (Ireland) and at the Philharmonie’s String Quartet Biennal (Paris). The quartet also attended a residency at the Banff Centre in 2019. In 2020, the quartet will attend IMS Prussia Cove, Festival d’Aix, and will be fellows for the Advanced String Quartet Program at Aspen Summer Music Festival.

The Echéa Quartet’s continued dedication to new music is central to their work. They have commissioned works by UK-based composers, including Louise Drewett, Freya Waley-Cohen and Robert Laidlow. More widely, the quartet have worked closely with Harrison Birtwistle, Andrew Norman and Henning Kraggerud. Three of the members perform on instruments on loan from the Royal Academy of Music. Aliayta plays on a J F Pressenda from 1847; Rosa plays John Empsall from 1909; Clara on a Charles Coquet from 2016; and Eliza plays on a Paul Kaul (Nantes, France) from 1912.

Musicians’ Company Award: Musicians’ Company Concerts 2020

Page updated: February 2022

Photo Credit: Phelan Burgoyne