Australian String Quartet

The Australian String Quartet (ASQ) is a chamber music group based at the Elder Conservatorium of Music, University of Adelaide, South Australia, and delivers an artistic program of performances, workshops, commissions and education projects across Australia and abroad.

The quartet performs on a matched set of string instruments hand crafted by Giovanni Battista Guadagnini between c.1743-1784 in Italy. The earliest of these is a violoncello (c.1743), and a violin (1748-49), both made in Piacenza. The viola (1783) and another violin (1784) were made in Turin.

The quartet has appeared at international music festivals and toured internationally.

Guest artists have included pianists Angela Hewitt and Piers Lane, mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter, clarinettist Michael Collins, violist Brett Dean and cellist Pieter Wispelwey.

In 2014-15, a documentary "Highly Strung" was made about the ASQ that documented the breakup of the quartet as it was then, plus the making of a copy of the cello by Italian luthier Roberto Cavagnoli. The documentary was made by acclaimed film-maker, Scott Hicks. It introduces us to Ulrike Klein, a Board member of the ASQ, and the members of the quartet.

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