INDUSTRY

Solem Quartet

Kelham Island Museum, Sheffield
Friday 2 April 2027, 7.00pm

Tickets:
£23
£14 UC, PIP, Pension Credit & DLA
£5 Students & Under 35s 

Priority booking opens Tues 15 September
General sale opens Tues 22 September at 10am 

Tickets go on sale at 10.00am on 15 September
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What does industry sound like? 

Step into the extraordinary surroundings of Kelham Island Museum for an evening weaving together music, voices and sounds drawn from Britain’s industrial landscapes. 

Solem String Quartet’s latest project is forged from the sounds of mills, mines and factory floors. Workers’ songs ring out through the music as looms clatter and churn, their archive recordings becoming part of the Quartet’s sound world. With traditional folk arrangements, familiar composers, new works, bird song, and a reimagining of Joy Division’s Love Will Tear Us Apart, this journey cuts through the industrial noise to reveal the legacy of communities built on graft, ingenuity and resilience. 

The result is a concert that moves between intimacy and intensity, tradition and experimentation, landscape and industry, building a vivid portrait of the people and places behind Britain’s industrial heritage. 

Programme features:
MARSEY Industry chorale i (new work)
Soundscape landscape recordings, birdsong
Trad. arr. TRESS Ca’ the Yowes
Trad arr. MARSEY The Water of Tyne
archive (Scottish women) Waulking song (with underscoring emerging)
BRITTEN Quartet No.2, ii. Vivace
archive (Ewan MacColl) Four Loom Weaver
Soundscape industrial clamour takes over
JULIA WOLFE Dig Deep
MISSY MAZZOLI Enthusiasm Strategies
archive (Tom Clough) Keel Row (underscored)
Trad. arr. NEWELL Keelman Ower the Land
archive (Welsh pub) Welsh pub recording (underscored)
MARSEY Industry chorale ii (new work)
MARSEY Be Nice To See You
archive (Joy Division) Love Will Tear Us Apart (underscored)
MARSEY Industry chorale iii (new work) 

“Immaculate precision and spirit.”

The Strad 

About the Artists

Solem Quartet

Praised for their “immaculate precision and spirit” (The Strad) and “cultured tone” (Arts Desk), the Solem Quartet has established itself as one of the most innovative and adventurous quartets of its generation. A 2020 awardee of the Jerwood Arts Live Work Fund, one of 33 artists selected from more than 1200 applicants, the Solem Quartet takes its place amongst some of the UK’s brightest artistic voices.

Since winning the Royal Over-Seas League Ensemble Competition 2014, the Solem Quartet has built a strong following. They enjoy a busy concert schedule, ranging from international tours in Asia and Europe to performances at venues such as London’s Wigmore and Queen Elizabeth Halls, Bridgewater Hall in Manchester, Muziekgebouw Amsterdam, Perth Concert Hall (subsequently broadcast by Radio 3) and the Tung Auditorium in Liverpool.

Passionate about collaboration, the Quartet has worked with artists from across genres including filmmaker Jessie Rodger, cellist/singer/composer Ayanna Witter-Johnson, and clarinettist/composer Mark Simpson, with whom they appeared at the Aldeburgh Festival and live on BBC Radio 3. They have also worked closely with many of today’s leading composers, including Anna Meredith, Colin Matthews and Thomas Adès, and in 2021 gave the UK premiere of Jonny Greenwood’s Quartet Suite from “There Will be Blood” at the V&A Museum.