Eusebius Quartet

The Eusebius Quartet first came together in 2016, though the ensemble has also performed under the Eusebius String Quartet banner. Its membership draws two violinists from Britain—Beatrice Philips and Venetia Jollands—and pairs them with American violist Hannah Shaw and American cellist Hannah Sloane. The four players had met during their teenage years yet followed separate paths through conservatory training and early professional work; Jollands, for instance, recorded as a session musician alongside Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood, and Boy George. They reconnected at the Prussia Cove International Musicians Seminar in Britain and, after each had completed formal studies, formed the quartet. The name Eusebius was taken from one of the two imaginary figures—Florestan and Eusebius—through which Robert Schumann expressed contrasting aspects of his musical personality. In 2018 the ensemble reached the finals of the Royal Over-Seas League Music Competition, and the following year it held a residency at the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme housed at the Snape Maltings arts complex. During that period the players studied Schumann and Bartók quartets under pianist and teacher Rita Wagner and closed the residency with appearances at the Aldeburgh Festival.

Beyond its prize-winning activity, the quartet has been heard at major festivals and has received several significant awards and career-development grants. Its British engagements have included Kings Place, the Glyndebourne Opera House, and the Lewes Festival, an event Philips founded and continues to direct artistically. Further concerts have taken the group to Santa Fe, New Mexico, and to a range of European venues. Among its frequent collaborators are pianists Alasdair Beatson and Bengt Forsberg, clarinetists Matt Hunt and Michael Collins, oboist Daniel Bates, bassoonist Amy Harman, and tenor Nicky Spence. In 2021 the quartet, signed to the Somm label and joined by Beatson, issued its first recording, Chamber Music by Erich Wolfgang Korngold.