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Meet the Quartet
All members of the quartet enjoy busy freelance careers working with the Halle, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, BBC Wales, Royal Philharmonic, London Soloists, Southbank Sinfonia and the RTE orchestras. Recent highlights include working with Bryn Terfel, Tasmin Little, Il Divo, All Angels, Sir Thomas Allen, Russell Watson, Katherine Jenkins and G4.
Melanie
Melanie Martin began studying the viola and piano at the age of eight, going on to graduate from the Royal College of Music with an MMus degree (with distinction in performance) after a BMus Honours degree, studying with Ivo-Jan van der Werff, Brian Hawkins and Jan Schlapp.
She lives in London, where she regularly works with the Halle and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Ochestra. She has also performed with many other orchestras, including London Soloists, Guildford Philharmonic Orchestra, the National Musicians Symphony Orchestra and the Seychelles International Festival Orchestra.
Melanie has received a number of prestigious awards including the Roy Heartfield Scholarship, the Courtaulds Music Award and the Stanley Hodson Award. As a founding member of the Sonas Quartet, she has performde at distinguished venues in Britain, as well a residency at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. She has performed on live TV with Bryn Terfel, Andrea Bocelli,Il Divo, Leona Lewis and All Angels, as well as recording for CDs.
Since leaving RCM, she has been a member of Southbank Sinfonia and has performed all around the world with string quartets, including Africa, America, the Caribbean, Morocco, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, the Baltics and Canada.
Victoria
Victoria Barnes studied music at Oxford University where she was a Music Scholar. During her time at Oxford she was part of the prizewinning Aldate String Quartet, for which a piece was commissioned. She lead the University Sinfonietta and was section leader of Oxford University Orchestra.
Whilst at the Royal Northern College of Music Victoria completed her Masters Degree studying the Violin with Richard Deakin. She gave many recitals and took part in numerous chamber and solo masterclasses, also winning the Nosseck prize for chamber music.
Since leaving the RNCM, Victoria has enjoyed a freelance career, including working with the Birmingham Opera Company, and as an extra work player for BBC NOW. Until recently she was a violinist with Southbank Sinfonia where she performed the A major Mozart Violin Concerto with the orchestra. Victoria has a love of chamber music and has performed with a chamber group at the Wigmore Hall. In addition to her work with the Sonas Quartet, Victoria has a number of forthcoming concerts with her piano trio.
Suzannah
Suzannah Quirke was born in manchester in 1982 and started playing the violin at the age of four. She gained experience in her local county youth orchestras before entering the Royal Northern College of Music in 2000 to study under Benedict Holland.
She graduated in 2004 having in addition spent a gap year studying at the Leipzig Hoschule, Germany, with Mariana Sirbu and then undertook a period of postgraduate study at Trinity College of Music, London, where she was taught by Gina McCormack.
Upon completion of her studies Suzannah was granted a place with Southbank Sinfonia and featured as a soloist, performing with the orchestra at the Anghiari festival, Italy 2006.
Suzannah is a keen chamber musician and has played with various groups with whom she has won several prestigious competetions including the Barbirolli Chamber Music prize in 2005. In addition, suzannah has worked as a freelance violinist for the last three years performing in many of the country's premier venues including; Birmingham's Symphony Hall and the Royal opera House, Covent Garden.
Pippa
Pippa Rans graduated with Distinction in the Postgraduate Diploma in Performance from Trinity College of Music in 2005, where she was a scholar studying with Lowri Blake and Joely Koos. She was principal cellist of the Symphony and Chamber Orchestras and won many prizes including the Classical Concerto and the Solo Bach Competition.
Pippa gained her undergraduate degree with Andrew Fuller at the University of Birmingham, where she led all the orchestras, won the Concerto Competition and was invited to perform the Saint-Saëns Cello Concerto with the University Sinfonia.
Pippa is a freelance orchestral cellist, performing with orchestras such as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra, Southbank Sinfonia, the BBC Concert Orchestra (mentor scheme) and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (as prizewinner). She is currently on trial with the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, Dublin.
Pippa's chamber music performances include the Wigmore Hall, Greenwich Theatre and Lauderdale House, and she has played for the Duke of Edinburgh, Sir Nicholas Serota and Sir David Attenborough at prestigious venues such as Channel 4, The Gherkin, City Hall and the Reform Club as part of Duo Cello.
Future engagements include a performance of Tchaikovsky's Rococo Variations with St Paul's Sinfonia in April 2008.