Formed in 2012, BLOCK4 is a London based recorder quartet featuring RCM Alumni Emily Bannister, Lucy Carr, Katie Cowling and Rosie Land. Having studied with Ashley Solomon, Julien Feltrin and Maria Martinez Ayerza, BLOCK4 present a dynamic approach to contemporary consort music as well as offering a captivating interpretation of music from the Renaissance and Baroque

periods.
 

The quartet's innovative style has resulted in them being

the 2014 winners of the Royal Overseas League

Ensemble competition - the first recorder consort to

receive this accolade in the competition’s 65 year history

- and has recently propelled them to success at the

Chesapeake Chamber Music Competition, where they

were awarded first prize in 2016.  BLOCK4 are Live Music

Now artists as well as the current Ensemble in Residence

for Handel & Hendrix House Museum.

 

BLOCK4 regularly perform contemporary music and

encourage the creation of new repertoire for the recorder

quartet. In summer 2015 the quartet worked with a number

of composers as part of the London-based new music

series, 840. The project culminated in a concert including five

innovative new works written for BLOCK4, as well as the

UK premier of Christopher Fox's 'The Feeling of Remembering'. 

Their enthusiasm for new music inspired them to purchase 

a consort of Paetzold instruments which they use to explore

new sonorities and possibilities of the recorder quartet. BLOCK4

would like to thank Brian and Janice Capstick, and the Early

Music Shop for their generous support in the purchase of these

instruments.  2018 saw the group perform 3 new premieres 

of new compositions for Recorder quartet across Lithuania,

the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. 

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Alongside their love of contemporary repertoire, BLOCK4 take an inquisitive approach to Renaissance music, frequently performing little-known works and creating their own arrangements for recorder quartet. They use the full range of renaissance recorders, from soprano to contra-bass, in order to capture the vast number of timbral and dynamic possibilities in consort playing. They currently play on a consort made by Adriana Breuknik.  

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To date, BLOCK4’s performances have included concerts at prestigious venues including the National Gallery, the Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Wigmore Hall, St. Martin-in-the-Fields, the Brighton Early Music Festival, and the Greenwich International Early Music Festival. International appearances have included the Styriarte festival in Graz in 2014 and 2016, and a short concert series in Chesapeake, USA. 

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