String Quartet No. 4 (Pieteris Vasks)

Viridian is a Glasgow-based string quartet dedicated to performing, commissioning, promoting and recording contemporary and experimental new music.

Current Players:

Johnny McBride (violin) *trial
Daniel Paterson (violin)
Emma Peebles (viola)
Peter Nicholson (cello)

Working with emerging composers, we enjoy pushing the boundaries of quartet playing in order to explore new musical territories. This involves disrupting form and structure whilst creatively exploring relationships between composed and improvised performance. We enjoy the challenge of embracing new and unusual performance spaces and openly collaborate with other artists and mediums including with electroacoustic elements.

Collectively we have diverse musical backgrounds, encompassing classical music, traditional, improvisation and popular. As individuals we perform and record with a number of groups including The Scottish Chamber Music Players, Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra, The One Ensemble, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Scottish Opera and The Royal Scottish National Orchestra.

Since our inception in 2007, we have performed new works by composers including David Fennessy, Gareth Williams, Steve Reich, Colin Broom, Richard Greer, Steve Forman, Pieteris Vasks, Oliver Searle, John Gormely, Marcos Fernandez, Silvia Colisanti, Alexander Horowitz, Jodi Cave, Adam Campbell, David Duncan, Graeme Brooks, Kevin Volans and Charles Ross.

We actively support and participate in contemporary and experimental music festivals and have performed regularly at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland's PLUG Festival for new music and recently appeared at the Sound Thought Festival at The Arches and the Sound Festival in Aberdeen.


String Quartet No. 4 (Pieteris Vasks)

Viridian Quartet