New string signings at Epstein Fox Performances

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Epstein Fox Performances have announced new recent signings to its roster, including the Maxwell Quartet from the UK and Bulgarian-US violinist Bella Hristova. Both artists will be represented by Brooke Scholl.

Comprising violinists Colin Scobie and George Smith, violist Elliott Perks and cellist Duncan Strachan, the members of the Maxwell Quartet have been friends since youth, studying and playing together in youth orchestras in Scotland. They formed officially in 2010 at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, as postgraduate students, and a year later were named as residency artists for Enterprise Music Scotland 2011–13. The quartet won first prize and the audience prize at the 9th Trondheim International Chamber Music Competition in 2017.

The quartet performs at UK venues such as London’s Wigmore Hall and Purcell Room, Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, and Perth Concert Hall, across Europe, and has toured the US since its debut there in 2019.

The quartet studied with the Endellion Quartet through a ChamberStudio mentorship programme at King’s Place and privately with Hatto Beyerle, founding member of the Alban Berg Quartet, in Hanover. Other mentors have included Miguel da Silva (Quatuor Ysaÿe), Erich Höbarth (Quatuor Mosaïques), and Krysztof Chorzelski (Belcea Quartet).

The Maxwell Quartet plays on violins by David Tecchler and Giovanni Batista Rogeri, a viola by J.B. Vuillaume and a cello by Francesco Ruggieri (1670), all on loan from generous benefactors. Additionally they perform on modern instruments by British makers Roger Hansell, John Dilworth and David Rattray.

A recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, Hristova has won numerous awards including first prize in the Michael Hill International Violin Competition, first prize in the Young Concert Artists International Auditions, and is a laureate of the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis. She has performed as a soloist with numerous orchestras in the US, Asia, Europe, Latin America and New Zealand. Highlights of her 2023-24 season include performances of the Wynton Marsalis Violin Concerto with Charleston Symphony and Eugene Philharmonic, Barber Concerto with Orlando Philharmonic, Mozart Sinfonia Concertante with the New York String Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, and Prokofiev Second Concerto with New York Youth Symphony at Carnegie Hall. 

Hristova performs frequently with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and has held residencies at top conservatory and summer music festival programs as a recitalist. As a recording artist, she has released her album Bella Unaccompanied with Tonegold Records, the solo works of Charles de Beriot with Naxos, plus the complete Beethoven and Brahms Violin Sonatas with pianist Michael Houston on Rattle.

Hristova began violin studies at the age of six in her native Bulgaria. After gaining accolades following master classes in Salzburg with Ruggiero Ricci, she studied with Ida Kavafian at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, and received her Artist Diploma with Jaime Laredo at Indiana University. Hristova plays a 1655 Nicolò Amati violin, once owned by the violinist Louis Krasner.

Playing

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Calendars

American collector David L. Fulton amassed one of the 20th century’s finest collections of stringed instruments. This year’s calendar pays tribute to some of these priceless treasures, including Yehudi Menuhin’s celebrated ‘Lord Wilton’ Guarneri, the Carlo Bergonzi once played by Fritz Kreisler, and four instruments by Antonio Stradivari.