Alice Barron – violin, vox
Rich Phillips – cello, vox
Will Roberts – percussion, vox
George Sleightholme – bass clarinet, vox
'Absolutely beautiful'
Cerys Matthews, BBC 6 Music
'Melding their classical roots with dynamic
traditional and improvised music'
Hannah Peel, BBC Radio 3
iyatraQuartet make original music rooted in ancient melodies and folk tales. Their distinct vocal harmonies emerge from a rich sound world of soaring strings, the exuberant lyricism of the bass clarinet and sensitive percussion abound with groove. Delving into generations-old European traditions for inspiration, particularly the work of 12th century pioneering female composers, iyatraQuartet re-imagine early music and stories through their unique contemporary twist. Taking their name after the Hindi word for travel or pilgrimage, the band embraces this sense of journey through place and time in their music.
Their debut album, This World Alone (2015), was praised by violinist Nigel Kennedy as ‘beautiful … full of space and truth’. In 2019, iyatraQuartet were recipients of the inaugural Kennedy-Kolodziejski Award and PRS Foundation’s Open Fund. Released in lockdown, their second album, Break the Dawn (2020), received critical international acclaim, including from Cerys Matthews, Folk Radio UK and Max Reinhardt.
iyatraQuartet lead workshops for Music for Autism, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, University of Bristol and their own Live Art Along. They regularly collaborate with Basel and Taim Saleh as part of Songs From Syria.