Winner of the prestigious Royal Philharmonic Society Award for Chamber Music in 2007, a Diapason d’Or in 2008 and a BBC Music Magazine Award in 2009, the Dante Quartet is known for its imaginative programming and the emotional intensity of its performances. Founded in 1995, the group chose its name to reflect the idea of an epic journey. The Quartet’s Hyperion recording of Debussy’s String Quartet was hailed by Gramophone as ‘most passionate’.

The Dante Quartet plays at major venues, music societies and festivals throughout the UK, including at Wigmore Hall and Kings Place in London. The Quartet broadcasts regularly on BBC Radio 3 and has also performed in Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and Switzerland. Since 2007, the Dante Quartet has been in residence at King’s College, Cambridge, giving masterclasses and collaborating with the renowned King’s College Choir to create unusual concert programmes interlacing music with readings from literature. The Quartet runs its own chamber music course in west Wales and has also taught at various summer schools, including Dartington and Cadenza.

The Quartet has commissioned and premiered many new works, including several inspired by Dante’s Divine Comedy, by composers such as Roxanna Panufnik, Cheryl Frances-Hoad, Dmitri Smirnov and Elena and Alissa Firsova. An important part of the Quartet’s calendar is the thriving Dante Summer Festival in the Tamar Valley—an eclectic mix of concerts in ancient churches and barns in rural Cornwall which attracts enthusiastic local audiences and a growing number of people from abroad.