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Four string players from a Haverhill school had a free masterclass with a member of a world-renowned string quartet on Sunday.

Samuel Ward String Quartet - Steven Huckfield, Lewis Tingey, Rosemary Start (violins) and Bartie Shirm (cello) - spent Sunday afternoon as the guests of Fitzwiliam College in the University of Cambridge.

They attended a student concert, and then received a coaching session for almost an hour-and-a-half from Heather Tuach, the cellist of the world-renowned Fitzwilliam Quartet.

This took place in Fitzwilliam College Chapel, which is a lovely modern building with a wonderful acoustic.

The quartet worked on three pieces of music which they will be playing for a local wedding on Saturday, so this was well-timed.

One piece which was particularly effective was an arrangement of Somewhere from Bernstein’s musical West Side Story.

Heather encouraged the players to make more of a performance of their playing, and to listen to each other more acutely – even making them face away from each other to make them really concentrate on their synchronisation!

The quartet was extremely grateful for such a fantastic opportunity, and really did themselves proud in the way they worked and responded to the advice and guidance they were given.

The free coaching session came about after the music director of the college saw the quartet's photo in a newspaper.