Cowal Music Club presents the Resol Quartet

Cowal Music Club is delighted to welcome the outstanding Resol String Quartet to perform their next concert on Sunday November 29th at 2.30pm in Dunoon Burgh Hall.

This young quartet, double prizewinners at the 2021 CAVATINA Chamber Music Competition in London’s Wigmore Hall, were also recently named one of Chamber Music Scotland’s Ones to Watch, and their performances have gained national attention, not least through broadcasts on BBC Radio Scotland’s Classics Unwrapped programme and appearances at the BBC’s Scotland’s People Awards.

Formed in 2018 during their time at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (RCS), the quartet is already known for its vibrant musical identity and compelling sound, and is emerging as one of the UK’s most exciting chamber ensembles. They were recently selected as Britten-Pears Young Artists in Aldeburgh, and in 2025 appeared at the St Magnus Festival in Orkney, presenting 3 concerts there.

They also have a strong commitment to education and community engagement, maintaining partnerships with Oban High School, Handcross Park School, and Worth School in Essex, and deliver many education programmes in partnership with Creative Scotland and the Hope Scott Trust. They have drawn, they say, “ inspiration from a wide range of mentors and teachers including members of the Brodsky, Fitzwilliam and Maxwell String Quartets”, who have helped shape their artistic development.

The players are Iona McDonald and Annabel Kidd (violins), Raphael Chinn (viola), and Chloe Randall (cello).

Iona, who is Scottish, recently graduated from the Royal Academy in London where she was awarded a Postgraduate Diploma (DipRAM) for an outstanding Final Recital, a Regency Award, and the John Barbirolli Prize for ‘outstanding studentship’. She was a leading member of the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland (NYOS), and is now a Principal player/member of the first violin section of the BBC SSO in Glasgow, where she has also played with the RSNO, as well as the CBSO and other UK orchestras. She has performed as soloist with the NYOS Junior Orchestra, Buxton Music Society, Halifax Symphony Orchestra and the Glasgow Chamber Orchestra.

Annabel, originally from Sussex, graduated with a first-class B.Mus honours degree at RCS in 2020. While studying there she also won the Mary Adams prize for chamber music and studied further under Donald Grant. Since moving to Scotland she has enjoyed a varied freelance career, including teaching. She has worked with Nicola Benedetti as an ambassador for the ‘Benedetti Foundation’, and currently works 2 days per week for Sistema Scotland, at Big Noise Govanhill.

Raphael (violist) comes from California but is currently based in Glasgow, having earlier studied at the San Francisco Music Conservatory, and with members of the Miami, Lark , and Alexander String Quartets. He has appeared in masterclasses led by esteemed violists Roger Chase, Robert Vernon, and Paul Coletti. In 2020 he was awarded a scholarship to undertake a masters degree in chamber music at the RCS with the Resol String Quartet, with whom he has been working ever since!

Chloe comes from Fife, but studied cello at the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) in Manchester where her teachers were Petr Prause and Nicholas Trygstad. While studying there she won the Amy Lindley cello prize and the Shirley Cattarall Award. She later spent 3 years studying at the University of the Arts in Vienna with Florian Berner and Bernhard Hedenborg, supported by the Scottish International Educational Trust. She recently won the first prize at the ‘Danubia Talents’ Chamber Music Competition in Budapest (Hungary), and as well as chamber music, often plays as freelance cellist with the RSNO, SBO, the Halle Orchestra and Manchester Camerata.

The quartet will be performing a highly attractive all-American programme, which includes a beautiful work by Florence Price – a composer whose works are being heard more and more nowadays, alongside two fascinating and atmospheric pieces by Jessie Montgomerie and Philip Glass, known for his so-called ’minimalist’ style. This promises to be a wonderful concert! All are very welcome!