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, 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 2024, the quartet released its third folk music album, Keel Road. [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]
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 Henschel Quartet is a German string quartet comprising the Henschel siblings; Christoph and Markus (violinists), Monika (viola) and Mathias Beyer-Karlshøj (cellist), who joined them in 1994. Brother Markus left the quartet in 2010, and was succeeded by Daniel Bell in 2012. In 2016–2018 Catalin Desaga took the place of the second violin. Today the Quartet consists of following members: Christoph Henschel and Teresa La Cour (violinists), Monika Henschel (viola) and Mathias Beyer-Karlshøj (cello).
The Quartetto di Cremona is an Italian string quartet founded in Cremona and considered one of the best of its generation.
Thomas Larcher is an Austrian composer and pianist.
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.
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.
Geneva Lewis is a New Zealand-born violinist now living in the United States.
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.
The Esmé Quartet is a string quartet, formed in 2016 at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz in Cologne, Germany by four Korean musicians. The members were long ago acquainted with each other as friends. They shared common interests and passions in music, the arts, and life. The quartet has rapidly gained a reputation as a chamber ensemble of exceptional achievement and promise.
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 Berkeley Ensemble is a British chamber music ensemble that explores little-known twentieth- and twenty first-century British chamber music alongside a more established repertoire.
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 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).
The Doric String Quartet is a string quartet based in the UK. It was formed in 1998. As of 2023, the members are Alex Redington and Ying Xue on violin, Hélène Clément on viola and John Myerscough on cello. Past members include Jonathan Stone, Simon Tandree and Chris Brown. In 2008, the quartet won first prize at the Osaka International Chamber Music Competition and second prize at the "Premio Paolo Borciani" International String Quartet Competition.
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