No time for solo

The Amber Quartet, formed by young Chinese musicians, has toured worldwide and won many awards. [Photo provided to China Daily]

"I had to think of a decent excuse to spend time with her. Rehearsing and performing in a quartet would be a good one," says Yang.

After violinists Su and Qi joined in around three years ago, the Amber Quartet developed into a professional group and won international recognition.

"We rehearse around 10 hours a day," says Su, 28. "Being in a quartet is like being in a four-person marriage, which means endless argument and adjustments. The process is enduring and hard, but also fun."

In 2013, the quartet was awarded the Grand Prize, the Dame Elisabeth Murdoch Prize, which is the first prize for string quartets, and the Hamer-Tribe Trust Prize at the Asia-Pacific Chamber Music Competition in Melbourne. It was the first Chinese quartet to win an international chamber music competition.

During the competition they performed Totem, a string quartet work for which composer Zhang spent two years in his hometown in Yunnan province observing and researching local ethnic folk music.

"Their performance involved hitting and slapping their fingerboard, as well as the unusual technique of bowing between the hand and the scroll which produced a haunting sound," according to ABC Classic FM.

"What I thoroughly enjoyed about their performance was the spaciousness that they found in Totem," said Zoe Knighton, guest commentator and cellist with Flinders Quartet, in an interview with ABC Classic FM.