Zephyr Quartet


The Zephyr Quartet is a string quartet based in Adelaide, South Australia. Founded in 1999, they have been recognised with awards and have collaborated with international musicians.

History

Founded in 1999, Zephyr has received tuition from the Takács Quartet, the Australian String Quartet and at the National Academy of Music, performed at festivals including the Adelaide Festival, Adelaide Fringe, Barossa Music Festival and the Glenelg Jazz Festival, and has presented concert series in 2004 and 2005 to great critical acclaim.
In August 2019, shortly after winning the APRA Award for Excellence by an Organisation, Zephyr announced that they would be taking a pause from regular performances for a period, although not disbanding completely.

Work

Zephyr has a continuing commitment to the development and promotion of contemporary classical music and often commissions and performs works by living composers. Zephyr has been committed to presenting concerts in an education context and would often perform for primary and secondary school students as a part of the Musica Viva in Schools program.
Each member of the quartet are also experienced composers, who often contribute their own work in their concerts and recordings.
The quartet has worked with Brink Productions, Australian Dance Theatre, and an interior designer, Khai Liew. Spanning many genres of music, they have played jazz with Andrea Keller, ambient music with Stars of the Lid, post-punk with JG Thirlwell, and minimalist music with Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson.

Key people

The members of the quartet are:
It was Kleinig who, when at university in 1999, asked some friends to play in a string quartet with her.
Kleining plays cello, baroque cello and viola da gamba, and has studied in Australia at the Elder Conservatorium with Niall Brown and Janis Laurs, and in the UK with Anna Shuttleworth and Alison Crumb. Her work includes performance, composition and arranging, education and arts management. She has worked in live and recorded performance as a freelance musician and in orchestras for opera, ballet and musicals. As a baroque specialist Kleinig plays with chamber ensembles such as Syntony, Adelaide Baroque, Adelaide Chamber Singers and the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra.
She also composes and arranges music for film, dance, theatre and ensembles, teaches cello and conducts ensembles.

Awards