Quartet Malamatina
Quartet Malamatina
A guitar quartet for the 21st century.
About
Known for their “immensely colourful, lyrical and expressive playing” (Laura Snowden), Quartet Malamatina first formed for a performance at the 2021 UN Climate Conference.
Current season highlights include concerts throughout Canada and the UK, performing for BBC Radio Scotland, The Worshipful Company of Musicians, Beacon Arts Centre, Carlisle Cathedral, Ottawa Guitar Society, Guitar Society of Toronto, and KW-Chamber Music Society. They have also undertaken artist residencies at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Yellow Barn (VT), and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland which have included mentorship from members of the Kronos Quartet, Gryphon Trio, Anders Astrand, Tom Allen, Dinuk Wijeratne, and David Watkin.
Amidst these performances, Malamatina gave world-premiere performances of newly-commissioned works by Marco Galvani and Erin Thomson, thanks to generous support from Creative Scotland and the PRS Foundation. The Quartet also worked with conductor-composer Martyn Brabbins (English National Opera) in a performance of his piece, Sometimes You Can Hear the Birds Sing – the work’s first outing since 1984.
Building upon the culturally diverse and long-standing traditions of guitar ensemble music, the Quartet reaches new audiences through a range of commissioning, arranging, multidisciplinary collaboration, and community engagement activities.
Equally comfortable on the concert stage as in the local community centre, Quartet Malamatina takes a socially-conscious approach to programming and presentation, sharing the expressive potential of concert music and forging new audiences in the process.
“These guys really know how to make their guitars sing! With their immensely colourful, lyrical and expressive playing, the Malamatina Quartet create magic.”