The Albion Quartet gained recognition and began playing some of the world's top halls soon after the group's formation in 2016. The quartet is noteworthy for playing thematic concerts, and also for their advocacy of contemporary music.

At their formation, the Albion Quartet consisted of violinists Tamsin Waley-Cohen and Emma Parker, violist Rosalind Ventris, and cellist Nathaniel Boyd. Though young, all had strong solo careers at the time, and all had been playing in string quartets since childhood. Ventris was later replaced by Ann Beilby. By the 2017-2018 season, the group had snared extremely high-profile bookings at the Louvre in Paris, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, and the Robert Schumann Gesellschaft in Frankfurt, as well as several major summer festivals. The quartet gained attention not only for their strong sense of ensemble, but also for thematic programs, unusual in the putatively abstract string quartet genre, such as those centered on such ideas as Mentors, War, Folk, and Hymn. The Albion Quartet has championed contemporary music and commissioned several new works, including a new quartet by Freya Waley-Cohen and a soprano-and-string quartet song cycle, Kate Whitley's Charlotte Mew Songs. The group also performs traditional repertory, including cycles of Beethoven's quartets and a large group of Dvorák's. The Albion Quartet has gone on to perform at major chamber music venues, including the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., and Wigmore Hall in London.

Signed to the Signum Classics label, the Albion Quartet released an album of quartets by Dvorák and Josef Suk in 2019. Later that year, they appeared on a recording of Richard Blackford's Kalon, a concerto for string quartet and orchestra, with the Czech Philharmonic, and 2020 saw the release of an album featuring Dvorák's String Quartets Nos. 8 and 10. The quartet's work has a strong educational component: they have held residencies at Gresham's School and the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, and under the auspices of the Cavatina Chamber Music Trust Ensemble, they have given workshops for primary school students of diverse background. Plans for the early 2020s included the establishment of the "Friends of the Albion Quartet," aimed at facilitating new school residences. ~ James Manheim, Rovi