The International String Quartet Competition "Premio Paolo Borciani" was created in 1987 in Reggio Emilia, Italy, and is dedicated to their famous fellow citizen, founder and first violin of the Quartetto Italiano. The promoter and organiser is Fondazione I Teatri in Reggio Emilia; artistic director is Paolo Cantù; founder was pianist Guido Alberto Borciani, Paolo Borciani’s brother. The competition has been a member of the World Federation of International Music Competitions since 1991.
The Geneva International Music Competition is one of the world's leading international music competitions, founded in 1939. In 1957, it was one of the founding members of the World Federation of International Music Competition (WFIMC), whose headquarters are in Geneva.
Barnabás Kelemen is a Hungarian violinist, chamber musician, and professor. He is the founder and artistic director of the Festival Academy Budapest and he co-established the Kelemen Quartet. His work has been recognized with the highest professional and state honors: he has been awarded Liszt, Bartók-Pásztory and Kossuth Prizes, Prima and the London-based Gramophone Awards, and is the holder of the Knight's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary.
The ARD International Music Competition is the largest international classical music competition in Germany. It is organised by the Bayerischer Rundfunk and is held once a year in Munich, usually in September. Since its inception in 1952, it has become one of the most prestigious classical music competitions. In 1957, it became one of the founding members of the World Federation of International Music Competitions.
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 Italiano was a string quartet founded in Reggio Emilia in 1945. They made their debut in 1945 in Carpi when all four players were still in their early 20s. They were originally named Nuovo Quartetto Italiano before dropping the "Nuovo" tag in 1951. They are particularly noted for their recording of the complete cycle of Beethoven string quartets, made between 1967 and 1975. The quartet disbanded in 1980.
Nevsky String Quartet is a string quartet based in St. Petersburg, Russia. They are noted for their award-winning performances of Russian music and their performances of contemporary music.
The Chiara String Quartet was an internationally performing professional string quartet based in Lincoln, Nebraska. The Group was the Quartet-in-residence at the School of Music in the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the Blodgett Artists-in-Residence at Harvard University. The group was also in residence as faculty at the Greenwood Music Camp, a summer program for advanced high school musicians. The group's members were Rebecca Fischer and Hyeyung Julie Yoon, violins; Jonah Sirota, viola; and Gregory Beaver, cello.
Mario Brunello is an Italian cellist and musician, who is currently Artistic Director of the International String Quartet Competition Premio Paolo Borciani and of the Reggio Emilia String Quartet Festival. Brunello plays a 17th-century Maggini cello which, in the 20th century, belonged to Benedetto Mazzacurati and then to Franco Rossi, cellist of the "Quartetto Italiano". He has played with many orchestras internationally and has performed with various artists.
The Signum Quartet is a string quartet based in Bremen, Germany. Founded in 1994, it has been playing in the current formation since 2016.
The MA Festival Brugge, short for the festival Musica Antiqua Bruges in Bruges, Belgium, is a festival of early music and historically informed performances, started in 1960. The program includes concerts, master classes, conferences, visits in the region, exhibitions, instrument market, and international competitions that concentrates in a three-year cycle on organ, harpsichord, pianoforte and other period instruments, vocals, and baroque ensembles. The specialised festival is part of the Festival of Flanders.
The Cavaleri Quartet was a British string quartet. It gained a reputation as one of the leading European string quartets before it disbanded.
Carl Nielsen International Competition is a competition for classical musicians held in Odense, Denmark, in memory of the composer Carl Nielsen.
"While having a formidable technique, she is not a virtuoso phenomenon, but something different that has to do intimately with music."
The Beethoven Prize of the city of Bonn was an international composition competition. In 1959 Bonn's Lord Mayor Wilhelm Daniels announced the establishment of a Beethoven prize for "the best orchestral work of a young composer". No restrictions were made to genre, style and instrumentation of the composition. The prize was given every 3 years, the prize money was 25,000DM. The prize was last awarded in 1992. Other Beethoven Prizes existed in Vienna and Berlin.
The International Violin Competition Leopold Mozart in Augsburg is an international violin competition, held every three years in commemoration of Leopold Mozart (1719–1787), the father of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It is the goal of the competition to encourage young violinists and to promote Augsburg's reputation as a German Mozart city. The competition is a member of the World Federation of International Music Competitions (WFIMC) in Geneva. It is run by the Leopold Mozart Board of Trustees in cooperation with the city of Augsburg and the Leopold Mozart Center of the University of Augsburg. Further partners are the Bavarian State Ministry for Science, Research and Art, the District of Swabia, Bavarian Radio and the University of Augsburg.
Alessandro Solbiati is an Italian composer of classical music, who has composed instrumental music for chamber ensembles and orchestra, art songs and operas. He received international commissions and awards, and many of his works are recorded. He is also an academic, teaching in Italy and France.
The Schumann Quartet is a German string quartet founded in Cologne in 2007, consisting of the three brothers Erik Schumann (violin), Ken Schumann (violin) and Mark Schumann (violoncello) as well as the viola player Veit Hertenstein. It is not named after the composer Robert Schumann, but after the three Schumann brothers.
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 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).