Next year promises to be an exciting one for the Australian String Quartet, with the 2020 season featuring new music, interesting collaborations and a fresh take on Beethoven.

“Our musical year in 2020 will be bright, bold and colourful,” said violist Stephen King. “We travel around the country to celebrate music with an array of wonderful artists, and contribute new Australian music to our cultural landscape.”

Dale Barltrop, Stephen King, Sharon Grigoryan, Francesca Hiew. Photo © Jacqui Way

The Quartet’s first national tour in May will see the ASQ joined by pianist Konstantin Shamray for the world premiere of a new work by Anne Cawrse, A Room of Her Own, reflecting on Virginia Woolf’s iconic text A Room of One’s Own and billed as “an intimate and personal exploration of what it is to be a woman composer in the 21st century.”

Cawrse’s new work will be performed alongside Bartók’s String Quartet No 4 and Dvořák’s Piano Quintet.

Intimate Letters, touring nationally in July, will also feature a world premiere, Ross Edwards’ Fourth String Quartet, alongside Janáček String Quartet No 2,...