YCAT is delighted to announce a transformational three-year partnership with The Cosman Keller Art & Music Trust.

As part of the Trust’s String Quartet Project in memory of the musician and writer Hans Keller, the Trust will underpin YCAT’s work in supporting the Adelphi Quartet, who will be named the inaugural YCAT Hans Keller Artist.

The Trust is also supporting the creation of new works for string quartet and is delighted to have collaborated with YCAT to commission Bushra El-Turk’s Saffron Dusk, premiered by the Adelphi Quartet at the Wigmore Hall in May 2021.

From the 1950s until the 1980s, Hans Keller played a unique role in the revitalisation of the quartet playing in Britain.  According to Benjamin Britten (who dedicated his own Third Quartet to Keller) “Hans Keller knows more about the string quartet, and understands it better, than anybody alive, composers and players included.” 

The year before he died, Keller was on the jury for the first YCAT Final Auditions in 1984 and returned again to
judge the finalists in 1985, just weeks before he died.

“The long-term commitment of The Cosman Keller Art & Music Trust is making to our work is truly inspiring. Not only will this support the Adelphi Quartet’s future and the creation of new music, but it will also honour the legacy of one of Britain’s most important musicians who was there at the beginning of YCAT’s incredible journey.”

 Kieran Jones