String Quartet Festival Heidelberg

January 23 – 26, 2020 | »Contemporaries«

The four-day 16th Heidelberg String Quartet Festival entitled »Contemporaries« at the Old Heidelberg University of Education ended today with the final concert in front of a sold-out hall. It is regarded as a pioneering festival of its kind and in 2020 it once again attracted like-minded people from Berlin, Hamburg, Dresden, Düsseldorf or Cologne, from Switzerland, Sweden, Belgium, France, England and the USA to Heidelberg alongside numerous quartet friends from the region. With around 6000 tickets sold for the 17 events, the capacity rate was over 96 percent.

The following prizes were awarded at the competition of the Irene Steels-Wilsing Foundation on 23 January: The Adelphi Quartet from Austria won the first prize of 12,000 euros, combined with an engagement at the String Quartet Festival the following year. The 2nd prize of 6,000 euros went to the Baum Quartet from Germany/South Korea, the 3rd prize of 4,000 euros to the Barbican Quartet from England. Three quartets shared the audience prize donated by the Heidelberger Frühling: Quatuor Agate from France, the Barbican Quartet from England and the Javus Quartet from Austria each received 700 euros.