The Danish String Quartet made its debut at the Copenhagen Summer Festival in 2002. The group is known for its performances of classical music as well as its own renditions of traditional Nordic folk music. The quartet has also worked with an extensive range of contemporary Scandinavian composers.
Violinists Frederik Øland and Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen and violist Asbjørn Nørgaard met as children at a Danish music summer camp where they played both football and music together, eventually making the transition into a serious string quartet in their teens and studying at the Royal Academy of Music, Copenhagen. At the time, the name of the group was the Young Danish String Quartet. In 2008, the they were joined by Norwegian cellist Fredrik Schøyen Sjölin and changed the group's name to the Danish String Quartet. The quartet was primarily taught and mentored by Tim Frederiksen and has participated in master classes with the Tokyo and Emerson String Quartets, Alasdair Tait, Paul Katz, Hugh Maguire, Levon Chilingirian, and Gábor Takács-Nagy.
Since 2007, the group has curated its own annual festival, the DSQ Festival, in Copenhagen. 2016 marked the beginning of Series of Four, the quartet's concert series in the concert hall of the Royal Danish Academy of Music.
In 2013, the quartet began a three-year appointment at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center's CMS Two Program. [1] The quartet was named a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist for 2013–15 [2] and Ensemble of the Year by Musical America in 2019. [3]
In 2023, the quartet announced their third folk music album, releasing in spring 2024 [4] .
In 2017, NPR Music named the quartet's second folk music album, Last Leaf, the Best Classical Album of 2017; [12] in 2019, the quartet was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance for its album Prism I. [13]
Dame Mitsuko Uchida, DBE is a Japanese-English classical pianist and conductor. Born in Japan and naturalised in England, she is particularly notable for her interpretations of Mozart and Schubert.
Bent Lorentzen was a Danish composer. He was one of the outstanding figures in contemporary Danish music. His works are frequently performed at festivals at home and abroad, and he had established particularly close links with musical life in Poland and Germany. He was honoured with several international prizes and was named Choral Composer of the Year in Denmark in 1989.
Michael Mantler is an Austrian avant-garde jazz trumpeter and composer of contemporary music.
The Pavel Haas Quartet is a Czech string quartet which was founded in 2002. Their first album with the second quartets of Haas and Janáček won the 2007 Gramophone Award for Chamber music. The Gramophone reviewer David Fanning described their playing as "streamlined but full-blooded". Their recording of the Dvořák String Quartets Op. 106 & 96 won the Gramophone Awards' most coveted "Recording of the Year" prize in 2011.
The Quartetto di Cremona is an Italian string quartet founded in Cremona and considered one of the best of its generation.
The Danish Quartet is a name which has been carried by four Danish quartets:
Colin David Currie is a multi award-winning Scottish virtuoso percussionist. He is the founder and leader of the Colin Currie Group, an ensemble specializing in performing and recording the music of Steve Reich.
Dobrinka Tabakova is a Bulgarian-British composer.
The Borletti-Buitoni Trust (BBT) was established as a charitable trust in 2002 to help young musicians throughout the world. The Trust assists classical instrumentalists, ensembles and singers in their early 20s and 30s to further develop their international careers with awards that fund tailor-made projects. The first awards were made in 2003.
Simon Steen-Andersen is a Danish composer, performer, director and media artist.
The Cuarteto Casals is a Spanish string quartet based at l'Auditori in Barcelona, where all four members reside and teach at the Escola Superior de Musica de Catalunya.
Sivan Magen is an Israeli harpist.
Geneva Lewis is a New Zealand-born violinist now living in the United States.
Dreamers' Circus is a Nordic band consisting of Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen, Ale Carr (Sweden) and Nikolaj Busk (Denmark).
The Calidore String Quartet is an internationally performing classical music string quartet based in New York City. The Calidore is composed of violinists Jeffrey Myers and Ryan Meehan, violist Jeremy Berry and cellist Estelle Choi.
Bolette Roed is a Danish-born recorder player based in Copenhagen.
Annelien Van Wauwe is a Belgian clarinetist who performs internationally as a soloist. She was educated by Sabine Meyer and other internationally known teachers. She has won numerous international competitions and performs with top international orchestras and as a sought-after soloist at international festivals, but is also active in chamber music with her own ensemble. Several works have been composed especially for her. She is also a principal teacher for historical and modern clarinet at the Royal Conservatory Antwerp. She lives in Berlin.
The Kuss Quartet with Jana Kuss (violin), Oliver Wille (violin), William Coleman (viola) and Mikayel Hakhnazaryan (cello) is a Berlin-based string quartet. It was founded in 1991 at the Hochschule für Musik "Hanns Eisler" by the two violinists of the ensemble and has been playing in its current formation since 2008.
The Amatis Trio is a piano trio formed in 2014 in Amsterdam. It is one of the few full-time piano trios in Europe. The ensemble was named a BBC New Generation Artist in 2016 and named in the ECHO Rising Stars in 2018 after being selected by Konzerthaus Dortmund, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Festspielhaus Baden-Baden and Kölner Philharmonie. In 2019, the trio was appointed Resident Chamber Ensemble at Cambridge University. The Amatis Trio now plays at major festivals such as the BBC Proms, Edingburgh International Festival and concert venues including Konzerthaus Berlin, Wigmore Hall London, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and Alte Oper Frankfurt. The ensemble has performed Beethoven's Triple Concerto with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Frankfurter Opern- und Museumsorchester.
The Armida Quartet, named after the eponymous opera by Joseph Haydn, is a German string quartet. The ensemble includes Martin Funda (violin), Johanna Staemmler (violin), Teresa Schwamm (viola) and Peter-Philipp Staemmler (violoncello).
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
| Other | |
