Tickets available for sale at the Hobart Town Hall from 1 hour prior to the concert.


Celebrating its 35th season in 2022, the New Zealand String Quartet has an established international reputation for its insightful interpretations, compelling communication, and dynamic performing style. The Quartet is known for its imaginative programming and for its powerful connection with audiences of all kinds.

Acclaimed performances in London’s Wigmore Hall, in the City of London Festival, in New York at the Frick Collection, and in Washington’s Library of Congress Coolidge Auditorium have led to regular touring in the UK, Europe and North America. Devoted educators as well as performers, all members of the NZSQ teach at the New Zealand School of Music — Te Kōkī — where the NZSQ is Quartet-in-Residence, as well as running the Adam Chamber Music School in Nelson each year. 

The New Zealand String Quartet presents a delectably diverse program rich in heart, nostalgia, and folk-like evocations from lands near and far. 

Haydn — the undisputed ‘father’ of the string quartet — warms the soul in his twenty-seventh string quartet, the perfect sonic foil for Shostakovich’s enigmatic second quartet of truly symphonic proportions. 

New Zealand composer Gareth Farr evokes the native soundscape of the Marlborough Sounds — Tūī birds call to the Weka in the distance. 

Smetana reflects on his life and declining health in his autobiographical second string quartet: a potent mix of strife, tenderness, fury and hope.

Helene Pohl: Violin I 
Monique Lapins: Violin II 
Gillian Ansell: Viola 
Rofl Gjelsten: Cello