Pinineda Quartet to perform at Globe Sunday matinee concert in Palmerston North

The Pinineda Quartet is violinists Hayden Nickel (left) and Nathan Pinkney, cellist Joanna Dann and viola player Sylvia Neild. Photo / Supplied

Visits to Palmerston North these days by New Zealand string quartets are not frequent, with the Aroha quartet based on Palmerston North-raised cellist Robert Ibell being an exception.

However, a relatively new, impressive young string quartet has three players who were educated locally.

The Pinineda Quartet features violinists Nathan Pinkney and Hayden Nickel, viola player Sylvia Neild, and cellist Joanna Dann. The name of their quartet derives from the initial letters of their last names.

The quartet were first heard locally at a Renaissance Singers concert last year, and their playing was so impressive they have been asked to return to do their own concert for the Globe Sunday Matinee series.

Sunday's concert will have a Russian theme, with two significant but contrasting pieces – the first by Shostakovich and the second by Borodin.

Shostakovich had a history of being under scrutiny by the Soviet government for evidence of dissident sentiments in his music and writings. His motivations were significantly humanitarian.

In the summer of 1960 he visited Dresden, the German city that was destroyed in 1945 by Allied firebombing. There, in three days, Shostakovich composed his 8th quartet inscribed "in memory of victims of fascism and war". The work is a personal outcry against totalitarianism of any kind.

Borodin's String Quartet No. 2 was written in 1881, as a 20th-anniversary gift for his wife. Some scholars suggest the quartet was meant to evoke the couple's first meeting in Heidelberg.

Nathan Pinkney has been teaching violin in Auckland for five years. First training as an electrician in Manawatū, he moved to Auckland to pursue music fulltime.

Hayden Nickel is an Aotearoa-born, Samoan violinist from Wellington. He studied violin at the New Zealand School of Music. Within the past month, he has played in Orchestra Wellington and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.

Originally from Palmerston North, viola player Sylvia Neild graduated from the University of Waikato in 2018 with a Bachelor in Music. She has been a member of the NZSO National Youth Orchestra, and in 2018 attended the International Viola Congress in Rotterdam.

Joanna Dann also hails from Palmerston North where she started learning cello at age 6. She studied for her Bachelor of Music at the University of Waikato with James Tennant, before gaining first-class honours from the University of Otago. She is based in Wellington teaching and freelancing.

The Details
What: Pinineda String Quartet
When: Sunday, September 25, 2.30pm
Where: Globe Theatre
Tickets: Donation, recommended from $5.

This is a Public Interest Journalism funded role through NZ On Air