Streichquartettfest

Adrien Jurkovic violin
Thomas Descamps violin
Raphaël Pagnon viola
Simon Iachemet violoncello

Founded in 2016 and based in Paris, the Quatuor Agate studied with Eberhard Feltz at the Hanns Eisler School of Music in Berlin, with Mathieu Herzog in Paris, and with the Quatuor Ebene at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich. In 2021, they were prize winners at the YCAT International Auditions. In 2020, they won the Audience Prize at the Irene Steels-Wilsing Foundation competition during the Heidelberger Frühling Streichquartettfest. In 2022, they were prize winners at the Banff International String Quartet Competition. Highlights of the season include debut concerts at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Alte Oper in Frankfurt, and at Britten-Pears Arts in Aldeburgh. They will return to the Lammermuir Festival at Wigmore Hall and will perform alongside the Quatuor Modigliani at the TauberPhilharmonie in Weikersheim and with the Quatuor Diotima at the Long Night of String Quartets in Munich. They are also recording the complete Brahms quartets for Appassionato Records. The quartet is Artist in Residence at the Fondation Singer Polignac and at Pro-Quartet in Paris, as well as Associate Artist at the La Breche festival in Savoie. Since 2021, they have been supported by the Günther-Caspar Foundation. In 2016, they founded the CorsiClassic Festival with the goal of bringing chamber music to remote locations on the island.

To the concerts with Quatuor Agate

Chae-Ann Jeon violin
Eunjoong Park violin
Yoon-sun Jang viola
Seong-hyeon Park violoncello

Founded in September 2019, the Arete Quartet unanimously passed the audition for the Kumho Art Hall’s Young Chamber Concert and subsequently made its debut at the Kumho Art Hall Yonsei in South Korea. In 2021, it won first place at the Prague Spring International Music Competition and received additional special prizes, including the Bohuslav Martinů Foundation Prize. In addition, the Arete Quartet received two special prizes at the 2022 PREMIO PAOLO BORCIANI International String Quartet Competition for the “best performance of a string quartet commissioned by Toshio Hosokawa” and a scholarship from Jeunesses Musicales Germany. At the 2023 International Mozart Competition at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg, they won first prize in the string quartet category as well as the traditional special prize from the Mozarteum Foundation for the best Mozart interpretation. The string quartet has already performed throughout Europe and has once again been invited to the Prague Spring International Musikfestival. The quartet members are currently studying at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich and are scholarship recipients of Yehudi Menuhin Live Music Now e.V. The Arete Quartet studies with Prof. Christoph Poppen, Jaeyoung Kim of the Novus String Quartet, the Quatuor Ebene, and Prof. Eberhard Feltz.

To the concerts with the Arete Quartet

Kaya Kato Møller violin
Nikolai Vasili Nedergaard violin
Daniel Sledzinski viola
Signe Ebstrup Bitsch violoncello

Founded in Copenhagen in 2018 and currently based in Vienna and Copenhagen, the NOVO Quartet is one of Denmark’s most promising young ensembles. Just recently, it won first prize at the 77th Concours de Genève in the string quartet category and also received four out of five additional special prizes, including the Audience Prize and the Students’ Prize. In 2023, the quartet received second prize at the Carl Nielsen Chamber Music Competition and first prize at the Irene Steels-Wilsing Foundation Competition as part of the Heidelberger Frühling Streichquartettfest. Other achievements include winning the 2020 Danish Radio P2 Chamber Music Competition, the 2021 Leonie Sonning Talent Award, as well as second prize and the jury’s special prize at the 2021 Trondheim International String Quartet Competition. The NOVO Quartet is currently studying at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna as part of the ECMAster programme (European Chamber Music Master) under Professor Johannes Meissl. Prior to that, they studied and worked for four years with Prof. Tim Frederiksen—the former teacher and mentor of the Danish String Quartet—at the Royal Danish Academy of Music. The quartet received further musical guidance from Hatto Beyerle and Valentin Erben (Alban Berg Quartet), Heime Müller (Artemis Quartet), and Asbjørn Nørgaard and Fredrik Sjolin (Danish String Quartet). The NOVO Quartet gives concerts throughout Denmark and has also performed in countries such as China, the United States, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Norway, Sweden, and Greenland. The NOVO Quartet was awarded the Walbusch Prize at the International Jeunesses Musicales Chamber Music Campus.

To the concerts with the NOVO Quartet

Aitor Hevia violin
Cibrán Sierra violin
Josep Puchades viola
Helena Poggio violoncello

Since its foundation in 2003, the Cuarteto Quiroga has established itself as one of the most dynamic and unique quartets of its generation. His name comes from the Galician-born violinist Manuel Quiroga, perhaps the most important Spanish violinist after Pablo de Sarasate. Winner of the 2018 Premio Nacional de Musica, the Premio Ojo Critico de RNE and laureate of major international quartet competitions (Bordeaux, Paolo Borciani, Geneva, Beijing, Fnapec-Paris, Palau Barcelona), Cuarteto Quiroga became the first ensemble in residence at the Royal Palace of Madrid in 2013, responsible for the Royal Collection of the most precious Stradivari instruments at the Spanish Court. Regular stage partners include musicians such as Martha Argerich, Jörg Widmann, Javier Perianes, Clemens Hagen, Valentin Erben, Richard Lester, David Kadouch, Jonathan Brown and Cappella Amsterdam. In the fall of 2021 they presented their album "Und Es Ward Licht" (Haydn & Mozart: The Birth of a New Era), recorded together with the renowned violist Veronika Hagen. The ensemble studied with Rainer Schmidt at the Escuela Superior de Musica Reina Sofia in Madrid, with Walter Levin at the Music Academy in Basel and with Hatto Beyerle at the European Chamber Music Academy (ECMA).

To the concerts with Cuarteto Quiroga

Pavla Tesařová violin
Michael Foršt violin
Matouš Hasoň viola
Adam Klánský violoncello

The Ševčik Quartet was founded in Prague in 2020 and began its studies at the Prague Conservatory with Radek Křižanovsky (Apollon Quartet). In 2021 it continued its previous studies at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague with Štěpan Ježek (Bennewitz Quartet). It also studied with Günther Pichler at the Escuela Superior de Musica Reina Sophia in Madrid in 2022. Meanwhile, the members of the quartet have distinguished themselves as talented and gifted performers of the young music scene. In June 2021 they won the 1st prize at the competition "Talents for Europe", reached the semi-finals of the Prague Spring International Music Competition and advanced to the finals of the Italian competition "Societa Umanitaria". The Ševčik Quartet participated in various master classes, including Musique a Flaine with Maria Chilemme (Quatuor Ebene) in France, Jeunesses Musicales Germany (Cuarteto Casals) and in Prague with Rainer Schmidt (Hagen Quartet). The ensemble also accompanied a project initiated by Musethica in Barcelona, where it repeatedly performed a Brahms sextet together with Jonathan Brown and Erica Wise. It performs regularly both in the Czech Republic and in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Spain.

To the concerts with the Ševčík Quartet

Workshoplead

Natasha Loges has been a professor of musicology specializing in 19th- and 20th-century music history at the Freiburg University of Music since 2022. After holding teaching positions at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London and the Royal Academy of Music at the University of London, Natasha Loges taught at the Royal College of Music from 2005 to 2022. From 2016 to 2022, she served as Head of Postgraduate Programs there, and from 2021 onward, she held the position of Professor of Musicology. Natasha Loges studied piano at the Guildhall School and musicology and music analysis at King’s College London. She wrote her dissertation on Johannes Brahms’s Lieder. Her research has been commissioned by the British Academy, the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the American Musicological Society, and the Royal Philharmonic Society, among others. She serves as a music educator for festivals and venues such as the Southbank Centre, Wigmore Hall, the Oxford Lieder Festival, and Leeds Lieder. She has produced radio programs for BBC Radio 3 and served as a reviewer for BBC Music Magazine. She is a member of the Women’s Song Forum, the Network for Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion in Music Studies, and the Advisory Board of the Institute of Austrian and German Music Research. In addition to leading workshops at the Heidelberger Frühling Streichquartettfest, Natasha Loges will be a guest lecturer and consultant for Brahms.LAB at the 2024 Heidelberger Frühling Music Festival.

To the events with Natasha Loges

Violinist Oliver Wille is a professor of string chamber music at the University of Music, Drama, and Media in Hanover, where he leads an internationally successful string quartet class and is doing pioneering work in the field of chamber music education through creative and innovative projects. Many of the ensembles he has trained have since won international awards and can be heard on major stages around the world. Along with Jana Kuss, he was one of the founding members of the Kuss Quartett at the age of 14. Since 2002, the ensemble has performed on all major concert stages and at festivals worldwide and has released several award-winning CD recordings. Most recently, the quartet recorded the Beethoven string quartet cycle live at Tokyo’s Suntory Hall, playing on Paganini’s Stradivarius. In addition to serving as a visiting professor of violin and string quartet at the Royal Birmingham Conservatory, the Berlin-born musician is the artistic director of the Hitzacker Summer Music Festival and chairman of the project advisory board and the general jury of the German Music Competition. Since 2019, he has co-directed the “Joseph Joachim” International Violin Competition in Hanover with Antje Weithaas. Oliver Wille is a sought-after music educator; he regularly hosts lecture-concerts and leads workshops. In this capacity, he has been a regular guest at the Heidelberger Frühling Streichquartettfest since 2008.

To the workshops with Oliver Wille