Kyan Quartet at the Museum of the Macedonian Struggle on September 5 - from Mozart to Shostakovich for 200 denars

Britain's Kyan Quartet performs with students of the FAMES Institute at the Museum of the Macedonian Struggle on September 5, in a programme titled "Chamber music for string quartet: through the eras". A ticket costs 200 denars - a price you would not run into for an ensemble of this calibre even in the countries where the quartet plays regularly.

The Kyan Quartet was formed in 2020 and is made up of musicians from Britain, the US, China and France. Behind them is first prize at the DYNAMIKfest chamber competition in Salzburg, a Royal Over-Seas League award in 2024 and the Tunnell Trust prize, and in 2025 they are City Music Foundation artists. They have played Wigmore Hall in London and the Shanghai Opera, and passed through the Britten Pears young artist programme.

The programme covers nearly two hundred years of string quartet repertoire: Mozart and Beethoven, then Dvorak, Arensky and Schumann, closing with Shostakovich. That is a range which demands four different ways of playing from four people in a single evening, because a Shostakovich quartet is not performed with the same hand that plays early Beethoven. Part of the programme is carried by the FAMES Institute's own chamber ensembles, which means the audience gets to hear what is being made in Skopje too, not only what was brought in from outside.

The concert is part of an eight-day residency programme the FAMES Institute runs together with Le Dimore del Quartetto, under which selected chamber ensembles from across Europe come to Skopje for mentoring and professional studio recordings. It starts at 8pm on September 5, and tickets are on karti.com.mk.