A bit about the inspiration for the project:
The quartet is just such a well loved and perfect sound canvas to work with and there is a long history of adding an ‘extra’ instrument to it – eg. flute, clarinet, oboe, piano, voice, etc to create new textures. I really felt it was time the uke was added to explore the way it can combine with traditional bowed strings – I’m quite excited about the way the sonorities will combine.
Having played in quartets over the years I’m quite well acquainted – in my imagination – with the way these sounds are going to interact, and I feel it’s going to be really effective. Also there’s a bit of me that feels that the uke deserves to be united with its wider string ‘family’ instead of being the distant relative that never gets involved. I think it’s a genuinely exciting idea.