However, there are some examples of the changes brought about by Cork’s brief tenure as Europe’s cultural capital. In 2005 a celebration of classical music quartets was born with the inaugural European Quartet Week. This Easter weekend sees the third instalment of this classical music festival. In 2008 it’s a case of East meets West with Singapore’s highly regarded T’ang Quartet teaming up with our own Callino Quartet for a series of gigs around a number of venues.

The presence of the T’ang Quartet suggests that West Cork Music are looking to break down the perceptions of classical music while reaching new audiences, something Francis agrees with. “We have developed a tradition of putting well-known works from the mainstream alongside lesser-known works to stimulate everyone’s imagination and interest. The Polish composer Henryk Gorecki is 75 this year. The late-night performance of his second quartet would be something for the people who flocked to the Arvo Paert performances at RTE’s recent Living Music Festival as well as something for the many Polish nationals living in Cork.

“Every year we bring string quartets like Callino and Carducci to 50 schools all round County Cork. We are always looking for ways to bring the music we love to a wider audience. The four members of T’ang are particularly good at reaching out to audiences. I would like to see European Quartet Week become an annual event and develop Cork’s reputation as the cultural capital of Ireland, and certainly the centre of great string quartet playing.”

The T’ang Quartet started their professional career in 1999 with unanimity of purpose: to break new ground by extending the sheer fun and enjoyment of classical music to a larger audience, as well as setting new standards of artistic achievement. Since then, the quartet has performed to critical acclaim internationally from the Tanglewood Festival in the USA and Cervantino Music Festival, Mexico to the Cheltenham Music Festival and the Huntington Music Festival Festival in Australia.