Dale Rickert, Glasshouse String Quartet

The Glasshouse Quartet
The Glasshouse Quartet

Queensland’s Glasshouse Quartet is representing the Australian Youth Orchestra (AYO) in a regional residency program during August and September in Victoria.

The Glasshouse Quartet was founded in 2009 and consists of UQ PhD music student Dale Rickert, former UQ medallist and graduate Susanna Ling, and Caroline Hopson and Glenn Christensen. They describe themselves as a group of great friends who adore playing chamber music. Already they have achieved much success, touring Australia and internationally, with a London performance broadcast live on
BBC Radio 3. They have also received guidance from groups including the renowned Borodin String Quartet. The current AYO program gives the group a taste of the busy but exciting life of a touring string quartet. At the end of the program the group will have rehearsed for more than 100 hours, put on more than 10 hours of concerts, and travelled over 2000 km. 

Regional music and education programs are central to the Glasshouse quartet’s vision for the future because of their power to bring communities together.

Susanna Ling, Glasshouse’s violist, has toured several times nationally and internationally with the Queensland and Australian Youth Orchestra, and understands the challenges of taking large ensembles on tour: It would be fantastic if orchestras could tour to regional areas on a regular basis, but considering that they can sometimes involve up to a hundred musicians, it’s not always a viable option. Touring with a string quartet is great because a quartet can play almost anywhere. It means that great music performance and tuition can be brought to communities that would otherwise be left isolated.”

Dale Rickert, cellist, believes that the future of a viable music culture in this country requires a grass-roots approach. “We can only hope to grow our audiences of the future through the support and funding of music education in all its forms. Music education must not become a luxury of the elite; we need a diverse, artistically literate society that demands high quality and wants to become active in consuming and producing great art. This can only be achieved through the support of funded music education and youth music programs.”

To this end the group hopes that as they continue to work together they can aim to make education, mentorship, and community engagement central. For these young musicians creating great music and engaging with audiences in the 21st century means having the ability to diversify and fulfil multiple roles as educators, advocates of youth music, and performers.

More information about the Glasshouse quartet can be found on the AYO website: http://www.ayo.com.au/

 

 

 

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