Roger Coull
Roger Coull studied the violin at the Royal Academy of Music in London with Trevor Williams and subsequently Frederick Grinke. Always passionate about chamber music, he formed the Coull Quartet as a student under the guidance of Sidney Griller.
The Coull Quartet was appointed quartet-in-residence at the University of Warwick in 1977, and soon established itself as one of Britain’s leading string quartets. The Quartet performs regularly in concerts and radio broadcasts in Britain, Western Europe and the USA and has also toured India, the Far East, Middle East, South America, Australia, China, and more recently Brazil, Berlin, Poland, Iceland and Singapore.
Included in their many critically acclaimed recordings are the complete Schubert Quartets on Upbeat Classics, the complete Mendelssohn Quartets on Hyperion Records (the recommended choice of BBC Radio 3’s Record Review) and a recording of quartets by Walton, Elgar and Bridge which was voted ‘Record of the Year’ by the BBC Music Magazine. The ensemble has a broad repertoire and has retained a strong commitment to contemporary music, commissioning works from eminent British composers such as Robert Simpson, Nicholas Maw and Edward Cowie. One of the Coull Quartet’s recent recordings (Sibelius quartet and piano quintet) was Editor’s choice in the Gramophone magazine. Recently their CD of Alan Ridout’s Six Quartets has been issued on the Omnibus Classics label and in 2019 they recorded piano quintets by Amy Beach and Henrique Oswald for Somm with pianist Clelia Iruzun.
In addition to performing with the Coull Quartet and the Warwick Piano Trio, Roger is versatile musician and also enjoys performing concertos, recitals with piano and conducting orchestras. He was appointed principal conductor of the Warwickshire Symphony Orchestra in 2014. He is also a regular guest conductor of the Beauchamp Sinfonietta, the Guernsey Symphony Orchestra, the Helix Ensemble and the Academy of St Thomas in Norwich, amongst others, and has been recently been invited to conduct the Kammermusik Chamber Orchestra on an annual basis in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Roger also has much experience as a teacher and has given many masterclasses internationally. He is a regular guest at Britain’s music colleges as teacher, examiner, and adjudicator and was awarded a Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Music for his services to professional music making.
He plays on a violin made in Naples by Nicolo Gagliano which dates from 1761.
In his spare time his hobbies include cycling and photography.