About
The Impromptu Quartet is a group of 4 friends and colleagues that have worked and performed together regularly over the last few years.
Our core players are:
John Dickinson, violin
John is a highly experienced violinist equally at home as a concert soloist, orchestral leader and quartet recitalist. Click for mini- biography
Following an undergraduate degree in Physics at Imperial College,London John sidestepped neatly into a Postgraduate Diploma at the Trinity College of Music studying with John Crawford, which he completed in July 2006
John has worked with a wide variety of groups both in London and the North West, as orchestral leader, freelancer and sectional tutor, as well as filming sessions for the BBC and Channel 4. He performs regularly as a senior member of St. Paul’s Sinfonia.
As a chamber musician, John has received coaching from Gordan Nikolitch, David Kenedy, Nic Pendlebury and the Wihan Quartet, and has performed in hundreds of venues across the UK and Europe, and is a keen recording artist with experience in many venues including at Abbey Road Studios.
Since March 2005 John has performed concertos to audiences in London, Vienna, Bratislava, Prague and Podebrady, and then followed that up with a performance of the Bach Double Violin Concerto in May 2006 with Lesley Gywther of the RLPO.
John was a part of the Britten-Pears Young Artists Programme 2006.
Outside of Music, John spends far too much time playing golf and is a keen amateur photographer.
Hide Biography
Suzannah Quirke, violin
Suzannah is an enthusiastic and flexible professional violinist, an alumnus of the Southbank Sinfonia Orchestra, and highly sought after performer. Click for mini- biography
Suzannah was born in Manchester in 1982 and started playing the Violin at the age of four. She gained experience playing in her local county youth orchestras before entering the Royal Northern College of Music in 2000 to study under Benedict Holland. She graduated in 2004 having in addition spent a gap year studying at the Leipzig Hocshulle with Mariana Sirbu and then undertook a period of postgraduate study at Trinity College of Music London where she was taught by Gina McCormack.
Upon completion of her studies Suzannah was granted a place with the Southbank Sinfonia for which she led the second Violins and featured as a soloist, performing in the Anghari Festival, Italy in 2006.
Suzannah is a keen chamber musician and has played with various groups with whom she has won several prestigious competitions including the Barbirolli Chamber Music Prize in 2005. In addition, Suzannah has worked as a freelance Violinist for the last three years performing in many of the country's premier venues including; Birmingham's Symphony Hall and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
Hide Biography
Andrew Thorn, viola
Andy is a talented and versatile viola player with a portfolio that is the envy of his peers, his combination of leadership and teamwork would make him a leading player in any industry! Click for mini- biography
Andy began studying the viola whilst a Junior Exhibitioner at Trinity College of Music and quickly gained a place in the prestigious National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, performing across Europe including the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall.
Andy was then awarded an Ash Scholarship to enable him to study geology at Imperial College and viola at the Royal College of Music. After a year he decided to devote all his time to music and transferred to the Royal College of Music fulltime. Andy completed his studies at Trinity College of Music with renowned soloist and teacher Rivka Goklani.
Currently Andy is pursuing a busy career as a freelance violist, regularly performing with orchestras including the Britten Sinfonia, Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra and the English Symphony Orchestra. He has performed at many concert venues across London and the United Kingdom and further afield in the Czech Republic, Berlin, Paris, Beirut and Qatar.
As a chamber musician he was a founder member of the Dolores quartet, performing at the Nailsworth and Salisbury festivals and with the Impromptu Quartet has performed at over 100 weddings and functions and recording work at Abbey Road Studios.
Hide Biography
Helen Neilson, cello
Helen is a diverse and exciting musician with interests in a variety of fields of performance, also a keen musical scholar she can keep you entertained and informed for hours on end! Click for mini- biography
Helen is a freelance cellist based in London. She recently gained her MMus in performance studies from Trinity College of Music, where she studied with cello with Naomi Butterworth, combining performance and research.
Orchestral engagements include City of London Sinfonia, London Camerata and the Orchestra of London. She played principal of the Royal College of Music Symphony and Chamber orchestras during her period of study there. She holds chamber music prizes from the Royal College of Music and Trinity College of Music. Recent performances include a recital at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival and the premiere of Daniel Hewson’s Secret Doors.
An active chamber music player with various ensembles, recitals and outreach work allow her to explore a variety of musical genres and interesting venues. She has many cello students and leads creative composition and improvisation workshops with young musicians.
A passion for Indian music has led to collaborative projects with musicians, including Ravi Shankar, and katak dance, plus a summer working in a music school in Kolkata. She grew up in a musical family in Scotland. Her studies were generously supported by the Countess of Munster Musical Trust.
Hide Biography
We also have a bank of players on file that we work with regularly and are more than capable of filling in should any member of the group be unavailable for your event.
This ensures that we are able to take on far more of the events than our individual availability would allow!