Schools and outreach
Around two thousand children a year hear us play in their own school hall, most of them for the first time.
What a school visit looks like
We arrive with four instruments and no amplification, and play for forty minutes in whatever room the school can give us. Children sit on the floor close enough to see the bows move, which is the entire point — a quartet at ten feet is a different thing from a quartet at a hundred.
The programme is built around one piece we play twice: once at the start, and once at the end after we have taken it apart. In between the children hear each instrument on its own, ask whatever they like, and usually work out for themselves what a second violin is for.
Working with young quartets
At Kilmory each summer we coach four student quartets across a long weekend, ending with a concert in which they play and we don't.
Booking a visit
Schools within reach of Manchester can book a visit through our education address; the Ashcroft Hall residency subsidises the fee, and we have never turned a school away over money.
