Wihan Quartet dedicates Wigmore Hall Concert to Cavatina Chamber Music Trust founder Simon Majaro to celebrate his 95th birthday

The Wihan Quartet
© Petra Hajska

The Wihan Quartet is dedicating its concert on 24 June at London’s Wigmore Hall to Simon Majaro, the London-based philanthropist and founder of the Cavatina Chamber Music Trust, who celebrates his 95th birthday the following day. It performs works by Smetana, Janáček, and Dvořák, showcasing the deep Czech musical heritage that has defined its career. 

The Wihan Quartet met Simon Majaro and his late wife, Pamela, after their triumphant win at the 1991 London International String Quartet Competition. Hugely impressed, the Majaros have supported and championed the Quartet since then, earning them the endearing title, ‘Our English Parents’ from the Quartet’s members.
In 1998, the Majaros founded the Cavatina Chamber Music Trust which enriches the lives of young people by providing opportunities to experience live chamber music through schools concerts and a special ticketing scheme which provides free tickets to young people (aged 5-25) in more than 50 partner venues across the country. Simon Majaro received an MBE for voluntary services to the Trust in 2011.
Following a distinguished academic career in the Business field, Simon Majaro published an acclaimed memoir 'Jerusalem’s Doctor of the Poor' and his debut novel 'Who is Mr. Poliakoff?'. He also fulfilled a long-term ambition to become a luthier (stringed-instrument maker). His instruments have been used by many professional musicians, including the Wihan Quartet, who performed with them at Wigmore Hall during the COVID-19 pandemic, having travelled to the UK without their own instruments.

The concert also marks the ‘Year of Czech Music 2024’, whose personalities have been commemorated every ten years since 1924, and, specifically, the 200th anniversary of Bedřich Smetana's birth.  “In music is the life of the Czechs” declared Smetana at the laying of the foundation stone of Prague’s National Theatre.
The day before its Wigmore Hall evening concert, the Wihan Quartet performs an all-Haydn programme at one of Wigmore Hall’s popular Sunday Morning concerts, at 11.30 a.m. on Sunday 23 June.

Wihan Quartet:
Leoš Čepický (violin)
Jan Schulmeister (violin)
Jakub Čepický (viola)
Michal Kaňka (cello) 

Sunday 23 June 2024 11:30am - https://www.wigmore-hall.org.uk/whats-on/202406231130

Haydn String Quartet in C Op. 76 No. 3 'The Emperor'
Haydn String Quartet in D Op. 64 No. 5 'The Lark' 

Monday 24 June 2024 7:30pm - https://www.wigmore-hall.org.uk/whats-on/202406241930

Smetana String Quartet No. 2 in D minor
Dvořák String Quartet in F Op. 96 'American'
Janáček String Quartet No. 2 'Intimate Letters'

(Press release from Tashmina Artists)

Interview with Simon Majaro from 2017 on Bachtrack here.