The Chilingirian Quartet collaborated this season for the first time with the New York-based ensemble Anonymous 4 in the world premiere of a new work, The Bridegroom, composed especially for them by Sir John Tavener. This unusual combination of string quartet and four female voices inspired Tavener to write a work based on the biblical story of the Wise and Foolish Virgins. In his own words, “The quartet of strings represents the Bridegroom and the female voices represents us, full of longing...The music should be almost unbearable in its ecstatic light, its endless melodic arch”. The Bridegroom had its world premiere in the Queen Elizabeth Hall on 17 October as part of the South Bank Centre’s Tavener Festival, Ikons of Light. Following concerts in Norway (Oslo, Stavanger and Trondheim), the octet cross the Atlantic to give the North American premiere in California, followed by performances across the continent, culminating in New York at the Metropolitan Museum in March 2001.