Pixels Ensemble

Notes & biographies

Frank Bridge’s Phantasy and Brahms’s Third Piano Quartet make an intriguing pairing: two composers finding distinctive voices through the piano quartet’s unusual combination of piano, violin, viola and cello. Bridge’s youthful work is atmospheric, restless and full of colour, while Brahms’s more expansive quartet moves between turbulence, tenderness and exuberance. Pixels Ensemble presents Bridge’s intimate, shifting landscape alongside Brahms’s passionate and richly Romantic drama.

Now in its tenth year, Pixels Ensemble is a versatile group of chamber music players with a shared interest in performing the finest repertoire, from the classical period to the present day. Its players are all established soloists, chamber musicians, recording artists, orchestra principals and explorers of contemporary music. Formed in 2016 by pianist and director Ian Buckle, the group appears in a wide range of line-ups and combinations, lending itself to innovative programming and enabling huge variety within individual concerts. Recent engagements include appearances at Liverpool Philharmonic, the Holywell Music Room in Oxford and Over-Seas House in London; and the group enjoys close associations with the University of Liverpool and Stapleford Granary, Cambridge. Pixels Ensemble is committed to new music, with premieres of pieces by Lera Auerbach, Dani Howard, Martin Iddon, Tim Jackson and Karen Tanaka.