The Flinders Quartet (FQ) has announced a new partnership with composer Melody Eötvös. Over five years, FQ will commission The Eötvös Cycle, three new major string works from the Melbourne-based composer, which will be given their world premieres between 2027 and 2031.

Melody Eötvös. Photo © Grant Heger

By establishing a long-term creative collaboration with a single composer, FQ hopes to foster a deeper relationship that allows “ideas to deepen, risks to be taken and the expressive possibilities of the quartet medium to be fully explored”.

The initiative draws inspiration from the relationships between Beethoven and Ignaz Schuppanzigh’s quartet, as well as Shostakovich and the Beethoven Quartet; both composers wrote cycles of 15 quartets from within these close, long-term relationships.

“I’m so excited for this opportunity to work with the Flinders Quartet across a five-year span, in what will no doubt be a transformative experience for my compositional voice and the development of my string quartet writing,” said Eötvös.

“Having sustained growth and evolution alongside an ensemble of this calibre is a precious gift, and I’m so honoured to have been chosen by these wonderful musicians, whom I look forward...