Latest News: September: Preparations for the upcoming world premiere of Mark Simpson's new Quartet in Oxford are underway. The Quartet are delighted to be working alongside Robin Green (conductor) and Julian Jacobson (voice) again for Pierrot Lunaire for the same concert on Friday 30th October. Buy tickets from www.ticketsoxford.co.uk. In other news the Quartet will begin recording their debut album with Non-classical in the next few weeks. June: The past few months have been relatively quiet for the Mercury quartet. However our recent concert in Croydon recieved a positive review in Musicweb-international.com. You can view the entire article here. Non-Classical have invited the group to make an official debut performance for the label on Wed 1st July at the Macbeth club in Hoxton. It promises to be an exciting time. Also the quartet have started to collaborate on the forthcoming Mercury Quartet album. The concert in St James' Picadilly on 8th July has been cancelled due to unforseen circumstances. April: The quartet have this month appeared at the Macbeth under the auspices of Non-classical records with a free improvisation set. On April 20th the Quartet are joining forces with guest artists Robin Green, Carla Rees, Sarah Cresswell and Michael Oliva to perform Tristan Murail's 'Allegories'. The concert is part of the 'Soundhouse' series and will be held in the Amaryllis Flemming Concert Hall at the Royal College of Music at 7:30pm. March/February: The Mercury quartet have been invited to perform Berg's trio from his Kammerkonzert in Esa-Pekka Salonen's festival 'City of Dreams: Vienna 1900-1935' at the Royal College of Music on the 10th of March at 7:30pm. The group have also been invited to be part of James Young's 'Rosemary Branch' music festival and have a recital in the Rosemary Branch Theatre on 5th May. January: January has seen the Mercury Quartet joined by Laura Lucas (flute), Olly Lowe (percussion) and Julian Jacobson (conductor) to close the Royal College of Music's Elliot Carter 100th birthday celebrations. They performed one of his seminal works, 'Triple Duo'. The piece was written in 1983 for Peter Maxwell Davies' London based ensemble, the Fires of London, and we were delighted to be coached and advised on our performance by David Campbell. David was the clarinettist in the Fires and gave the world premiere of the work in New York. December: The Mercury Quartet have won 'The Battle of the Bands'. It was a competition run by record label Non-Classical to find the next big thing in contemporary classical chamber music. Part of the prize is the opportunity to record a disc with the label in late 2009 along with headline slots in the popular classical club nights in the Macbeth pub in Hoxton.