The Gildas Quartet appoints new members

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The UK-based Gildas Quartet has announced the appointment of violinist Tom Aldren and violist Christine Anderson, joining current members second violinist Gemma Sharples and cellist Anna Menzies. Aldren takes over the role of first violin from Hatty Haynes, while Anderson takes over the viola role from Francesca Gilbert.

‘We are sending them all our love and gratitude for the past few years of music and friendship,’ the quartet said in a post on social media, as Haynes and Gilbert depart the quartet to pursue other musical interests.

The Gildas Quartet was established in 2011 at the Royal Northern College of Music, and went on to become a semi-finalist in the 2018 Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition and won first prize in the 2018 Audience Engagement Award at the International Franz Schubert and Modern Music Competition in Graz, Austria. It has performed at major venues including the Barbican, Wigmore Hall, Purcell Room, Conway Hall, and live on BBC Radio 3.

The quartet has received awards and support from the Britten Pears Foundation, the UK Arts Council, and the Tunnell and Richard Carne Trusts, and has been recognised as City Music Foundation Artists, formerly serving as Junior Fellows at the Birmingham Conservatoire.

To create a visceral string quartet experience with the audience in the midst of the players, the Gildas Quartet has performed immersive ‘Surround Sound Sessions’ since 2019, for which it received an award from the Help Musicians UK Do It Differently Fund in 2020.

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