The Lakeside Clarinet Quartet is made up of postgraduate students at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Shortly after the group formed in 2017, they were selected to perform in the Guildhall School’s Spotlight Concert series, resulting in a public performance in March 2018. The quartet has received tuition and support from Joy Farrall, Professor Ian Wilson, Richard Benjafield, Graham Sheen, Helen Simons, and Philippa Davies. They have been praised for their ‘spirited playing’, and ‘committed, lively’ performances.

     Later this year they will be giving concerts in and around London, including at St Giles-without-Cripplegate, at the United Reformed Church in Kingston-upon-Thames, and as part of the Music in New Malden concert series in south west London. They will also be performing at a Staywell Dementia Care Centre, and undertaking work with Everyone Matters, a charity run by Margaret Archibald. In December 2018, the quartet will take part in a clarinet festival in Llíria, Valencia, for which they have been awarded a B&T International Travel Bursary by the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

     The Lakeside Clarinet Quartet already has a wide selection of repertoire in a variety of genres, including a piece by Graham Sheen, adapted by him especially for clarinet quartet. They are also planning to collaborate with other composers in the future, including Tom Baynton, and Italian clarinettist Antonio Fraioli.