New Year with the Carducci Quartet at Dartington Hall

For the third year, there will be a chamber music festival to bring in the New Year at Dartington Hall from December 30 to January 1. This will be organised by John Whibley ‘Holidays with Music’ which undertakes more than 30 international music tours each year.

John Whibley was a music student at Dartington in the early 1960s, a magical and golden age of live music making. He spent two years studying cello with Dartington Quartet cellist Michael Evans and also was a helper (a trog) at the Summer School of Music. At that time, Dartington Summer School attracted some of the most famous musicians and composers in the world so was a great inspiration for a young cellist. John went on to study with distinguished cellist William Pleeth and then joined the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester.

Before founding ‘Holidays with Music’ in 1999 with his wife Helen, John was manager of Manchester Camerata and concerts manager of the Hallé Orchestra. He had always wanted to return to Dartington and the opportunity arose in September 2016 when he organised the first chamber music festival with the Callino Quartet. Since then, there have been seven September visits and two New Year events.

This year, the musicians will be the internationally proclaimed Carducci String Quartet with Garfield Jackson on viola and Simon Callaghan on piano.

There will be five concerts by the Carducci Quartet and friends in Dartington’s Great Hall from Monday December 30 2024 - Wednesday January 1 2025.

December 30, 5:30pm

December 31, 12pm - Piano recital

December 31, 6pm

January 1, 12pm

January 1, 5:30pm

Musicians:

Carducci Quartet: Matthew Denton and Michelle Fleming on violins, Eoin Schmidt-Martin on viola and Emma Denton on cello.

With Simon Callaghan on piano and Garfield Jackson on viola.

Tickets are available from: Dartington Box Office /
Email: [email protected] / Telephone: 01803 847 070.