Drawn together by a shared enthusiasm for early string quartets, the members of the Windermere String Quartet came together in 2005 to perform the music of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and their contemporaries on period instruments, as well as new works inspired by the WSQ’s historically-informed style. The Quartet has drawn notice for “sparkling, straightforward interpretations” and “an attractive earthy honesty.”

Their Windermere String Quartet Concert Series, in Toronto, has been presenting exciting, innovative and exploratory programming for over a decade. Over the years, the WSQ has played the world premières of ten new quartets, nine by Canadian composers. Over the same period, they have performed all sixteen of Beethoven’s String Quartets, and have introduced the Quartet’s loyal audiences to the works of under-represented composers of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, including Georges Onslow, Carl Loewe, Juan Chrisóstomo Arriaga, Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel, and many others. The WSQ has performed to acclaim on concert series throughout Ontario, and has collaborated with many bright lights in the early music community, including Lucas Harris, Alison Melville, and Meredith Hall.
The WSQ’s first recording, The Golden Age of String Quartets, released in 2012, has been widely praised for “period performances that blend life, spirit and soul with a perfectly judged sensitivity for contemporary style and practice.” Their second recording, Inner Landscapes, has just been released (December 2016).