Doric String Quartet Announces New Members

Violinist Maia Cabeza and violist Emma Wernig have joined the award-winning ensemble

Founded in 1998, the UK-based Doric String Quartet (DSQ) has welcomed its new first violin Maia Cabeza, who will succeed Alex Redington, and Emma Wernig, who will assume the viola position previously held by Hélène Clément.

The quartet also comprises founding member and cellist John Myerscough, and violinist Ying Xue, who joined the group as second violin in 2018. 

Cabeza is currently the leader of the Aurora Orchestra and Principal Second in the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and Kammerakademie Potsdam. As a soloist, she has appeared with the Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, Augsburg Philharmonic, Vienna Chamber Orchestra, St. Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra, Munich Radio Orchestra, and more. Among her accolades include top prizes at the 2013 Leopold Mozart Competition and the 2018 Johann Sebastian Bach Competition. 

A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and Berlin’s Hanns Eisler Hochschule für Musik, Cabeza was also a member of the Karajan Orchestra Academy from 2012 to 2014. Her main teachers included Ida Kavafian, Joseph Silverstein, Antje Weithaas and Rainer Schmidt. 

Alongside her new role with DSQ, Wernig is also First Principal Viola of the Danish National Symphony Orchestra. Her chamber music collaborators have included Janine Jansen, Gidon Kremer, Lynn Harrell, Daniel Müller Schott, Steven Isserlis, Christian Tetzlaff, Tabea Zimmermann, Nils Mönkemeyer, Viviane Hagner, and more. 

She has appeared as a guest artist at festivals all over the world including the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and the Verbier Festival. A graduate of the Colburn Conservatory, Yale School of Music, and the Musikhochschule Hanns Eisler, Wernig studied with Paul Coletti, Ettore Causa, and Tabea Zimmermann. Her accolades have included first prize at the 2017 Cecil Aronowitz International Viola Competition and the Barbirolli Prize at the 2019 Tertis International Viola Competition. 

“I’m so happy to be joining the Doric String Quartet and moving to London!” Wernig wrote on Facebook. “Many dreams come true on this one. These are incredible musicians and really special and dear people. An exciting new chapter of life awaits!!!”

The DSQ holds a discography of over 20 recordings for Chandos — a label they have recorded exclusively with since 2010. Cabeza and Wernig will join the quartet for its latest series of albums featuring Beethoven, which will culminate in the 2026/27 season with the 200th anniversary of the composer’s death.

A regular visitor at Snape Maltings and London’s Wigmore Hall, the DSQ embarks on an annual tour of the US and visits Japan every other year. The group has also performed with orchestras including the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, BBC Scottish Symphony, BBC Symphony Orchestras, and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. 

This season the quartet will tour projects with Jonathan Biss and Cuarteto Quiroga. Additionally, the group has been a Teaching Quartet in Association at the Royal Academy of Music since 2015 and Artistic Directors of the Mendelssohn on Mull Festival since 2018.

“We are thrilled to welcome violinist Maia Cabeza and violist Emma Wernig to the Doric String Quartet at this exciting stage in the group’s journey,” the quartet posted on Instagram. “We couldn’t be happier to embark on this new musical chapter with these two wonderful musicians!

“We would like to extend our deepest thanks and love to Alex and Hélène and know that they will always be part of the Doric family.”