The next course will take place in Ullapool, Wester Ross, from Saturday 18th to Friday 24th July 2026.

Booking for Variations 2026 is now open.

Once again, your tutors for the week will include members of the renowned Edinburgh Quartet together with others tutors who will be  announced later.

The Egremont Quartet at Ullapool 2022

Your course fee also includes tickets for the two public concerts given by the Edinburgh Quartet.

If you book your place before 31 March 2026, the course costs £520 (£560 after 31 March). A £150 deposit is required to secure each place at the time of booking. See our ‘Book Your Place‘ page for more details.

Variations Confirms the String Quartet Challenge

Variations is happy to confirm it will launch the Variations String Quartet Challenge, to encourage more younger amateur musicians to form quartets and play together regularly, later this year. This has been made possible by generous funding from Creative Scotland, the High Fraser Foundation, the Pear Tree Fund for Music and the Gordon Memorial Trust.

This is an open competition for 18 – 40 year olds. They will be invited to submit recordings of a couple of movements (one of them will be a test piece) from which the Edinburgh Quartet will draw up a list of 4 finalists, and also identify quartets that show promise. The finalists will perform an entire quartet each at a public concert during the autumn of 2026 or early in 2027, with the Edinburgh Quartet as judges, The winning quartet members will be given a free pass to Variations 2027 in Ullapool. There will also be several follow-up one day workshops with the Edinburgh Quartet for runners-up in the Challenge.

Anyone who might consider participating – watch this space and the Variations Facebook and  Instagram pages for more details or email info@variationsscotland.co.uk so we can send you an application form once the Challenge dates and application details are available.