North Sea String Quartet

You can call it chamber jazz, but the members of the North Sea String Quartet will be the last ones to try and limit their work by mere stylistic descriptions. As improvising string players active in the Dutch music scene, they are influenced by classical, world and folk music. Four creative minds combining their full potential and diverse musical backgrounds, creating a unique sound, and having a lot of fun in doing so.

Before forming the quartet, all members of the NSSQ had been playing together in different settings. A mutual love for the string quartet and a shared desire for an acoustic group that grooves and swings, moves freely in collective improvisations and masters the classical sound, led them to form the NSSQ in Rotterdam by 2016.

During the pandemic George Dumitriu (part of inJazz 2021 with the Black Sea Songs project) joined the group. Cello player Thomas van Geelen: “This made us, both individually and collectively, reflect on our music and experiment with our renewed sound, and trying out during for instance the Balkonscènes concerts as funded by the Dutch Performing Arts Fund. Now we are further developing our repertoire, aiming to record an album by early 2023, which will reflect the time we’re in right now.”

Pablo Rodríguez – violin
George Dumitriu – violin
Yanna Pelser – viola
Thomas van Geelen – cello