The Fifth Quadrant (5Q) music collective was founded in 2009 by Simon Hewitt Jones (violinist), Drew Balch (violist), and Daniel Swain (pianist) with the goal of exploring the boundaries between traditional classical repertoire and contemporary music. Over the years, 5Q collaborated with a diverse range of artists from inside and outside the world of music, creating innovative projects that challenged conventions and pushed artistic boundaries.

5Q was invited by Paul Robertson of the Medici Quartet to participate in the premiere of Towards Silence, one of Sir John Tavener’s final major works. Alongside three other string quartets, they toured several cathedrals in the UK and recorded the piece for Signum Classics. 5Q also performed at some of the most prestigious festivals and concert series in the UK, such as Spitalfields, Aldeburgh, Serenata, Cheltenham, and Swaledale. They were featured on BBC radio and television and served as musicians-in-residence at the Henley Festival. Several of the 5Q musicians contributed to the recording of Imogen Holst’s String Chamber Music, which received a BBC Music Magazine award in 2010.

Fifth Quadrant also travelled regularly to the Occupied Palestinian territories, to perform concerts, workshops, and masterclasses. These tours led to collaborations both with Palestinian composer and instrumentalist Ramzi Aburedwan and his ensemble group Dal’Ouna, and with British composer and conductor Antony Pitts. This included a major project, ‘Road to Jericho’, drawing together western and eastern musical styles in a radical new work by Pitts called Who is my Neighbour?, which was recorded during an Aldeburgh Residency and premièred at the opening night of the Spitalfields Festival in 2011, conducted by the composer.