The open call for the European project MERITA received more than 60 applications from 27 different countries. The 38 quartets that will have the opportunity to participate in MERITA’s innovative activities were selected by the project’s artistic committee. 

CLICK ON THE PICTURES AND DISCOVER MORE ABOUT SELECTED QUARTETS

ADAM QUARTET
The Netherlands

QUARTETTO ADORNO
Italy

AIRIS STRING QUARTET
Poland

AKELA QUARTET
Denmark

AKHTAMAR QUARTET
France 

QUATUOR AKILONE
France

ALINDE QUARTET
Germany

AMAI QUARTET
Austria

ANIMATO QUARTET
The Netherlands

ANTARJA QUARTET
Poland

ATENEA QUARTET 
Spain

BELINFANTE QUARTET
The Netherlands

CHAOS STRING QUARTET
Austria

DESGUIN KWARTET
Belgium

QUARTETTO EOS
Italy

ERINYS QUARTET
Finland

FABRIK QUARTET
Germany

QUARTET GERHARD
Spain

QUARTETTO GOLDBERG
Italy

CUARTETO IBERIA
Spain

QUARTETTO INDACO
Italy

KANDINSKY QUARTET
Austria

KARSKI QUARTET
Belgium

KLEIO QUARTET
United Kingdom

MALION QUARTETT
Germany

MEDEA STRING QUARTET
United Kingdom

STRING QUARTET MERAKI
Serbia

QUATUOR MIRAGES
France

QUATUOR MONA
France

MOSER STRING QUARTET
Switzerland

NERIDA QUARTET
Switzerland / Germany

NEW CRETAN 
Greece

PROTEAN QUARTET
Switzerland

PURACORDA
The Netherlands

SKAZKA QUARTET
The Netherlands

SONORO QUARTET
Belgium – Ireland

VIRIDE QUARTET
The Netherlands

QUATUOR WASSILY
France

 

Discover more about MERITA

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or European Education and Culture Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

ADAM QUARTET
The Netherlands

With fresh eyes, the ADAM Quartet seeks to shine its light on the string quartet while remaining true to the essence of the genre. Since graduating from the Conservatorium van Amsterdam in 2020, the quartet has been a member of the Netherlands String Quartet Academy (NSKA), where it is supervised by artistic director Marc Danel and has so far received master classes from Eberhard Feltz, Pavel Fischer, Luc-Marie Aguera, Gary Hoffman and Daniel Rowland, among others.

QUARTETTO ADORNO
Italy

Founded in 2015, it completed its studies at the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole. The Adorno Quartet was the first Italian quartet to win the Third Prize, the Audience Prize and the Special Prize at the 2017 ‘Premio Paolo Borciani’ International Competition.
The name of the quartet is a tribute to the philosopher Theodor W. Adorno who, at a time of musical and social decline, identified in chamber music a key to salvation for perpetuating a true human relationship, according to the values of respect and the yearning for perfection.

AIRIS STRING QUARTET
Poland

Airis String Quartet was founded in Cracow in 2008 to pour an untamed student passion into modern music.
modern music. From the beginning, the fascinating field of musical exploration (although not very common for a young string quartet) has been contemporary Polish music with Krzysztof Penderecki in the lead, and world music literature of the 20th and 21st centuries.
The ensemble has been actively performing for over 14 years. Considered one of the most
most interesting Polish string quartets of the young generation, the Airis String Quartet is a winner of numerous international competitions, scholarships and national art grants.

AKELA QUARTET
Denmark

AKELA Quartet was founded in 2019 at the Royal Danish Academy of Music and has since then been performing the quartet repertoire with presence and curiosity under the guidance of Professor Tim Frederiksen at chamber music festivals, international masterclasses, competitions and in concerts throughout Denmark.
AKELA strives to be an attentive and inspiring ensemble and has organised and performed concerts of very different character – from school concerts with singing and storytelling, to chamber music concerts in some of Denmark’s largest halls and side-by-side concerts with music students, to concerts in retirement homes during the closure of Covid-19 in Denmark.

AKHTAMAR QUARTET
France

Akhtamar, an Armenian legend. The quartet’s name comes from the Armenian pieces by Komitas/Aslamazyan, which the ensemble has been playing regularly since their foundation. Formed in Brussels in 2014, the ensemble was one of the six quartets selected for the Paris Philharmonic’s ‘tremplins jeunes quatuors’ in 2016, and in the same year they were awarded second prize at the Musiq’3 festival. In 2021, the quartet was awarded third prize at the Johannes Brahms International Competition. The Akhtamar Quartet performs in prestigious concert halls and festivals all over Europe: Radio France Festival in Montpellier, the Concertgebouw in Bruges (Be), the MonteLeón Festival (Sp), and also plays in Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, the Baltic States… and of course in Armenia

QUATUOR AKILONE
France

The Quatuor Akilone is a human and musical adventure that began in 2011 in Paris. The musicians assert an authentic approach to their repertoire, historically informed and pursued with a resolutely spiritual vision.
The meeting with Hatto Beyerle, who would later guide them during the European Academy of Chamber Music, was decisive.
Other outstanding chamber musicians such as Vladimir Mendelssohn, Johannes Meissl, Xavier Gagnepain, Jean Sulem, Miguel Da Silva.
Sulem, Miguel Da Silva, Patrick Juedt, the Quatuor Ebène and Mathieu Herzog were a continuous source of inspiration and support.

ALINDE QUARTET
Germany

Awarded prizes at numerous international competitions – the most recent of which are the Chamber Music Competition ‘Città di Pinerolo e Torino’ and the International Competition ‘Salieri Zinetti’ – the quartet is enthusiastically received by audiences in halls all over Europe. In the 2022-24 concert seasons, they performed in important halls such as the Elbphilharmonie, the Kölner Philharmonie, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Mecklenburg Vorpommern and the Mozartfest Würzburg.
Behind the scenes, the group organises multiple pedagogical projects, including a series of workshops in cooperation with the Kölner Philharmonie and the Festspielhaus Baden Baden, the Beethovenfest in Bonn and the Ida Bieler Academy in Cologne. Igniting a passion for chamber music and increasing understanding of it is indeed the quartet’s main mission.

AMAI QUARTET
Austria

Formed at the end of 2020 at the University for Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, the quartet won first prize and audience prize at the Pietro Marzani Quartet Competition in Rovereto, thanks to which it performs in the 2021/2022 and 2022/2023 seasons in Modena, Rivoli, Mestre and Rovereto, where it will have the opportunity to participate in the Settenovecento festival. Among the renowned festivals in which it has taken part there are Classiche Forme, Fortissimissimo Firenze Festival, Musica con Vista – Comitato Amur, SetteNovecento, Lingotto Musica, Pianodrom Tirana

ANIMATO QUARTET
The Netherlands

Animato Kwartet is considered one of the most promising young string quartets in the Netherlands and its members have been praised for their passionate and spontaneous playing and powerful stage presence.
Founded in 2013, their programmes contain a combination of classical music inspired by the abundant string quartet repertoire and contemporary compositions, some of which have been composed especially for the ensemble.
In the Netherlands, the Quartet has performed in the Kleine Zaal of Het Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Tivoli-Vredenburg in Utrecht and Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ in Amsterdam during the String Quartet Biennale 2020. They have played at festivals such as the International Chamber Music Festival in Utrecht and outside the Netherlands, in Portugal, Germany, Norway and France.

ANTARJA QUARTET
Poland

Antarja Quartet is a dynamically developing young Polish quartet. Their concert repertoire is varied and they offer audiences both classical and contemporary pieces, including no shortage of premieres. The quartet’s main goal is to promote Polish chamber music abroad. The Antarja Quartet has performed over 100 concerts in its 11 years of activity.

Formed in 2009, its members studied at the Academy of Music in Kraków and Poznań. They improved their soloist skills in the classes of extraordinary Polish instrumentalists: Kaja Danczowska, Janusz Pisarski, Dominik Połoński and Marcin Baranowski

ATENEA QUARTET
Spain

Formed in 2019, the Atenea Quartet was born with the aim of exploring and bringing to life the vast and spectacular world of the string quartet repertoire.

The quartet was trained mainly by members of the Casals Quartet and musicians such as Heinz Holliger (in the Swiss Chamber Academy), Heime Müller (during the Biennale of String Quartets in Barcelona in 2020) and Donald Weilerstein (in the International Chamber Music Campus in Germany). Currently, the quartet is continuing its musical development at the Hochschule für Musik in Basel, where three of its members are pursuing Master Oficial programmes.

BELINFANTE QUARTET
The Netherlands

With its name, the Belinfante Quartet wants to honour Frieda Belinfante, cellist and Europe’s first professional conductor.
The Quartet was formed in 2016 and has since performed in the Netherlands and throughout Europe. Aiming to share their passion for music with a wider audience, the ensemble explores the combination of fundamental works from the string quartet repertoire with lesser-known masterpieces. The Belinfante Quartet is currently Quartet in Residence at the Netherlands String Quartet Academy in Amsterdam. It studies at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover with Oliver Wille.
The ensemble has performed at various festivals throughout Europe, including the String Quartet Biënnale in Amsterdam, the International Chamber Music Festival Utrecht, the Grachtenfestival and the Tiberius Festival in Romania.

CHAOS STRING QUARTET
Austria

Following a path free of predefined standards, transcending all barriers and pushing all limits, this is the motto of the Chaos string quartet.
The quartet won the 2020 edition of the XI. Vittorio Rimbotti International Prize. Distinguished as ‘The most promising newcomer ensemble 2020’ at the 65th Chamber Music Campus of Jeunesse Musicales International, the ensemble was subsequently invited to perform at the Heidelberger Streichquartettfest 2022.
The quartet is now perfecting with Johannes Meissl (Artis Quartet) in Vienna. In 2019, he was selected for the prestigious ECMAster (European Chamber Music Master) Programme: a study programme with a customised curriculum to enhance his artistic skills in an international context ranging from Vienna to Oslo and Paris.

DESGUIN KWARTET
Belgium

Desguin Kwartet is an ambitious young Belgian quartet known for its versatility and often interdisciplinary approach. Born at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp, where the members of the quartet met and graduated with distinction, the quartet was shortly afterwards selected for the Orpheus Institute for chamber music in Ghent and is currently a member of the prestigious Pro Quartet Academy in Paris. Their quartet playing is strongly influenced by their teachers from Alban Berg, Danel and Zemlinsky Quartet.
In 2019 they became ‘Artist in Residence’ of the SWUK Foundation in Belgium and in 2020 they won the SUPERNOVA Classics Competition, along with the audience prize.

QUARTETTO EOS
Italy

Winner of the 2018 ‘Franco Abbiati’ Farulli Music Critics’ Prize, it was born in 2016 from the meeting of four young musicians at the S. Cecilia Conservatory in Rome and perfected its studies with Quartetto di Cremona at the Stauffer Academy. It has participated in masterclasses with Francesco Fiore, Alfred Brendel, Eckart Runge (Artemis Quartet), Patrick Juedt (ECMA), Lawrence Dutton (Emerson Quartet), Jerusalem Quartet.

It periodically collaborates with musical institutions including Società del Quartetto di Milano, Istituzione Universitaria dei Concerti , Gioventù Musicale d’Italia. In 2019 it received a special mention in the National Competition for String Quartets “Sergio Dragoni” for which it performed at IIC Tirana in 2020.

ERINYS QUARTET
Finland

Erinys Quartet was formed in Helsinki, Finland, by an international group of students from the Sibelius Academy where they studied chamber music in the class of cellist Marko Ylönen. They have also studied with Paavo Pohjola and Teemu Kupiainen, as well as with Sini Simonen of the Castalian Quartet and Simone Gramaglia of the Cremona Quartet.

In the summers of 2020 and 2021, the Erinys Quartet was invited as an Emerging Artist Ensemble to the Mimir Chamber Music Festival in Forth Worth, Texas, where they performed internationally broadcast streamed concerts.

FABRIK QUARTET
Germany

The Fabrik Quartet was founded in 2021 out of the four members’ desire to explore and disseminate the music of our time, connecting with its diverse expressive potential and powerful communication possibilities.
The quartet was formed within the programme of the International Ensemble Modern Academy in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
In this context, the four members had the opportunity to meet and work intensively on contemporary repertoire and to perform at various contemporary music festivals throughout Europe: INMM Spring Conference Darmstadt; Wittener Tage für Neue Kammermusik; Manifeste 2022, Paris; F*Lab Festival, Frankfurt; Time of Music Festival, Vitasaari (Finland); Lucerne Festival 2022; Gaudeamus Muziekweek, Utrecht.

QUARTET GERHARD
Spain

Gerhard Quartet is characterised by a remarkable sensitivity for sound and an inner respect for music as the highest bond between human beings.
As a quartet, their main roots are in Basel (Rainer Schmidt), Berlin (Eberhard Feltz) and Madrid (Günter Pichler). They have also worked with other greats such as György Kurtág, András Schiff and Ferenc Rados.
Winners of numerous national and international competitions. Their performances have been regularly broadcast by Radio Catalunya and RNE (Spain), NDR and SWR (Germany).

QUARTETTO GOLDBERG
Italy

Quartetto Goldberg is “Resident Artist” of the Fondazione Società dei Concerti di Milano for the 2022/2023 season, winner of the Special Jury Prize at the “Marcello Pontillo 2022” Competition and of the “Young talents of the Stauffer Academy” scholarship for the 2020-2022 two-year period. Invited by the ProQuartet association, it is one of the ten quartets taking part in the Nuit du Quatuor 2022 in Paris. He is “Quartet in Residence” at the Ticino Festival 2022 and is selected by the Quatuor Zaïde for the International String Quartet Academy 2022, meeting artists such as Johannes Meissl, Jovan Markovitch, Quatuor Zaïde and Gilles Apap. He participated in the Zeist Music Days Festival 2022, working with Alexander Pavlovsky (Jerusalem Quartet), Cuarteto Quiroga, Marcin Sieniawski (Karol Szymanowski String Quartet) and Quartetto di Cremona.

The ensemble is part of Le Dimore del Quartetto, for which he played at the inauguration of The String Circle project at the Auditorium Arvedi in Cremona and for the music review ‘Musica con Vista 2022’, in collaboration with Comitato Amur and artistic societies such as Filarmonica Laudamo, Musica Insieme Bologna and Fondazione Società dei Concerti di Milano.

CUARTETO IBERIA
Spain

Cuarteto Iberia was born in 2017 in Madrid out of a shared passion for chamber music.

Cuarteto Iberia’s participation in the Boccherini Open Gold Festival in 2018 received great critical acclaim for their interpretation of Luigi Boccherini’s work, giving impetus to an already promising career.

They participated in masterclasses and festivals in Vienna, Salzburg, Munich, Lucerne, Weikersheim and Madrid, receiving lessons from Alban Berg Quartett, Artemis Quartett and Kuss Quartett, among others.

In 2019 they received a scholarship from Jeunesses Musicales International and were invited to participate in the International Chamber Music Campus in Weikersheim, Germany.
In June 2021 they obtained a place to study in the string quartet class at the Universität Mozarteum Salzburg with Maestro Cibrán Sierra.

Since 2022 they have been Quartet in Residence at the Museo Lázaro Galdiano in Madrid.

QUARTETTO INDACO
Italy

Described as “compact, full of polish and exuberance, a true revelation”, Indaco Quartet was born at the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole in 2007 thanks to the impetus of Piero Farulli and Andrea Nannoni, specialised at the Musikhochschule in Hannover and attended masterclasses with some of the leading chamber and quartet players of our time.

A finalist in the 2017 Premio Paolo Borciani, Quartetto Indaco has won several awards throughout its career. The ensemble has been a guest at prestigious festivals and musical institutions in Italy, including the concert held at the Palazzo del Quirinale in Rome and broadcast live on Rai Radio 3, Società del Quartetto in Milan, Festival Paesaggi Musicali Toscani, Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto and Nuova Consonanza in Rome). The Quartet has performed in Germany, Switzerland, Ireland, Latvia, Sweden, Portugal and the Netherlands. Collaborations with internationally renowned musicians are also numerous.

In addition to tackling the classical repertoire,  Quartetto Indaco also devotes attention to contemporary music with the aim of giving voice to and disseminating new musical languages.

KANDINSKY QUARTET
Austria

Prize winner of the Boccherini Competition and Scholars of Jeunesse Musicales Germany and Villa Musica, it was founded in 2020 and is based in Vienna. Invited to festivals in France, Italy, Croatia and Austria, it recently joined Le Dimore del Quartetto and ProQuartet. It is artist in residence within the framework of the annual summer cycle ArbeiterInnenkonzerte in Vienna, including 10 concerts each season for both 2021 and 2022.

KARSKI QUARTET
Belgium

Rapidly gaining recognition on the international music scene for its passionate interpretations of works ranging from Haydn to 21st century repertoire, the Karski Quartet was formed in Belgium in 2018 and performs in a wide range of venues throughout Europe. In the 2022/23 season in addition to performing in Belgium and abroad the Karskis will be recording their first CD album, as well as a Boccherini string quintet disc together with cellist Raphaël Feye.
The quartet’s founding members are violinists Kaja Nowak and Natalia Kotarba, violinist and violist Diede Verpoest and cellist Julia Kotarba. Having played with one another in many different combinations, the four met as a quartet during the 2018 Resonances Festival Academy.
KLEIO QUARTET
United Kingdom

Kleio Quartet was formed at the Seiji Ozawa International Chamber Academy in 2019.

They have performed in major concert halls such as Wigmore Hall, Victoria Hall, Cadogan Hall, Royal Festival Hall, the DR Koncerthuset and many more.

Kleio Quartet receives continuous support from violinist Alina Ibragimova. The musicians have also received coaching from world-renowned chamber musicians Pinchas Zukerman, Nobuko Imai, Sadao Harada, Pablo Hernán Benedí and Pamela Frank.

In the 2021-22 season they held a residency at the Britten-Pears Festival at Snape Maltings in Aldeburgh and participated in ChamberStudio’s mentoring programme under the guidance of Doric String Quartet cellist John Myerscough.

In 2021 they were selected to join the network of Le Dimore del Quartetto.

MALION QUARTETT
Germany

Malion Quartet is one of the most versatile quartets of the emerging young generation. In 2018, the year of their foundation, the musicians were admitted to the scholarship programme of Villa Musica Rhineland-Palatinate and won the competition of the Frankfurt Polytechnic Society. Other awards followed, including the ensemble scholarship from the Society of Friends and Sponsors of the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts, and they were admitted as finalists to the German Music Competition 2022 and received a special prize from the German Foundation for Musical Life.

The quartet has already performed at venues such as Frankfurt’s Alte Oper, the Kölner Philharmonie, London’s Wigmore Hall, the Beethovenfest in Bonn and the Cité de la musique in Paris as part of the Biennale du Quartet d’Arches 2022. The ensemble has been engaged as Quartet in Residence at the Holzhausenschlösschen in Frankfurt for 2023, following in the footsteps of internationally established quartets such as the Aris Quartet and the Eliot Quartet. The quartet’s special artistic encounters include collaboration with composer Jörg Widmann on the occasion of ‘Kosmos Widmann’ at the Heidelberger Frühling 2021 and joint chamber music projects with Martin Stadtfeld, Hariolf Schlichtig and Vogler Quartet.

MEDEA STRING QUARTET
United Kingdom

A newly formed ensemble, it is composed of current students and graduates of the Royal College of Music. Drawn together from a young age, Clara Mezzanatto and Ada Guarneri performed for many years in the same string quartet in Italy. Based in London, they officially formed the Medea String Quartet in 2020 with English violist Joanna Patrick and violinist Mira Marton under the aegis of Simon Rowland-Jones.

STRING QUARTET MERAKI
Serbia

Meraki String Quartet was founded by Violeta Ćirić, Nada Šarković – violins, Ena Vaganek – viola and Magdalena Matić – cello. Vaganek – viola and Magdalena Matić – cello, and has been performing together since 2020. Although a young ensemble, since its foundation Meraki has given a large number of performances in Serbia and abroad, both for individual concerts and as part of various festivals.

QUATUOR MIRAGES
Francia

Driven by a shared passion for the unspeakable in music, Laetitia Amblard, Constant Clermont, Pierre-Pascal Jean and Arthur Heuel created Mirages Quartet in 2020.
These four instrumentalists from the Paris Conservatoire studied chamber music with François Salque, but also benefited from the advice of Pierre Fouchenneret (Quatuor Strada), Pierre Colombet (Quatuor Ébène) and Christophe Giovaninetti (Quatuor Ysaÿe), Emmanuel Haratyk (Manfred Quartet/Castagneri Quartet), Jean Mouillère (Via Nova Quartet), Jean-Marc Phillips Varjabedian (Trio Wanderer), Michael Hentz, Victor Julien-Laferrière, Hortense Cartier-Bresson, Olivier Charlier and Marc Coppey.
In 2021, Mirages Quartet won first prize unanimously at the Via Nova competition organised by the La Roche-Guyon masterclasses, as well as the Prix des cordes en Ballade, awarded by the Debussy Quartet at the 34th FNAPEC European ensemble music competition.

QUATUOR MONA
France

Formed in 2018 at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, Quatuor Mona has recently performed in concert at the Edinburgh International Festival, Musée de l’Orangerie, Festival Musique à l’Empéri in Salon-de-Provence, Festival “Les Vacances de Monsieur Haydn”, Festival Debussy, and Festival Orangerie de Sceaux. In February 2019, the ensemble was appointed Artist in Residence for ProQuartet-CEMC,, and joined the Villa Musica Foundation in Germany and the Escuela de Reina Sofia in Madrid in the class of Günther Pichler. The quartet has worked together with such great masters as François Salque, Mathieu Herzog, Valentin Erben, Rainer Schmidt, Martin Beaver, Jérôme Pernoo and Luc-Marie Aguera.
Pianist and composer Abdel Rahman El Bacha dedicated his piece ‘Prélude à cordes’ to them and invited the quartet to perform it at the 2019 Classissimo Festival in Brussels. In 2020, it was selected to join the Le Dimore del Quartetto network.

MOSER STRING QUARTET
Switzerland

Moser String Quartet was born out of a love and interest in chamber music, and a strong desire to pass this passion on to their audience. The quartet is based in Basel where, at the Hochschule für Musik Basel, they take courses from renowned masters.
They performed a recording session of Mozart’s Quartet in D minor (K. 421) in the Neuer Saal, Hochschule für Musik Basel in November 2020. In June 2021, they were finalists in the Ninth Anton García Abril International Chamber Music Competition, Baza, Spain.

Born during the difficult times of the coronavirus pandemic, this young group aims to transmit a passion for the performing art of music. Each member of the quartet firmly believes that art and culture are a pillar of humanity and even more so in these difficult times, they can help us find positivity in life.

NERIDA QUARTET
Switzerland/ Germany

Formed in autumn 2018, Nerida Quartet unites the personalities and motivations of the musicians in a single musical mission. The members study at conservatories in Bern, Lucerne, Freiburg and Berlin and perform regularly in Germany, Italy and Switzerland. The quartet has benefited from lessons from Jean-Guihen Queyras, Peter Rainer, Isabel Charisius (Alban Berg Quartett), Rainer Schmidt (Hagen Quartett), Gregor Sigl and Eckart Runge (Artemis Quartett). In 2019, he was selected by Le Dimore del Quartetto and was invited to be part of the ‘Music with Masters’ festival in Pistoia. He won the special prize at the Boris Pergamenschikow Competition in Berlin, 1st prize at the Orpheus Chamber Music Competition in Switzerland and was selected to participate in the autumn sessions of the European Chamber Music Academy in Bern. The name Nerida is a reference to the Nereids of ancient Greek mythology, symbolising the element of water that always flows and changes.

NEW CRETAN QUARTET
Greece

New Cretan Quartet was founded in 2018 at the Heraklion Municipal Conservatory of Music in Crete and the original line-up included Evangelos Tsiamalos, violin, Nikos Papadakis, violin, Stefanos Symeonidis, viola and Kostis Spyridakis, cello.
Active since 2019 with the current line-up: Giannis Mageiropoulos, violin, George Chliavoras, violin, Stefanos Symeonidis, viola and Kostis Spyridakis, cello.
The quartet has performed in numerous concerts throughout Greece and in a series of concerts in Cyprus.

PROTEAN QUARTET
Switzerland

Protean Quartet was founded in 2018 in Basel. It takes its name from Proteus, the Greek deity of the sea, which in turn is the etymological origin of the noun ‘proteus’ as the intrinsic quality of something that frequently changes form, effect or opinion.  Thus, the Protean Quartet is identified with a critical spirit in permanent revision and constant dialogue with the music and among its members, in search of new ideas and creative impulses.

Motivated by curiosity and a passion for ‘Historically Informed Performance’, the ensemble focuses primarily on rediscovering the stylistic, rhetorical and technical aspects of musical language from the Baroque to the Classical and Romantic periods.

PURACORDA ENSEMBLE
Netherlands

PuraCorda was born in early 2020 from the initiative of Majorcan violinist Mayumi Sargent and Greek cellist Antigoni Seferli, after they met during their music studies with a specialisation in historical performance practice at the Amsterdam Conservatory.
PuraCorda is dedicated to the historical interpretation of 19th and 20th century repertoire, a new and exciting territory that few ensembles have explored with gut strings the quartet is primarily interested in unknown repertoire and forgotten composers.
Moreover, given the low profile of women composers in the history of music, they have always decided to include at least one work by a woman in all their programmes.
Although established as a string quartet, this group wishes not to constrain itself to this singular type of repertoire and to remain flexible with regard to its own form in order to embrace the entire undiscovered chamber music repertoire.

SKAZKA KWARTET
Netherlands

Skazka Kwartet was founded in 2020 in the Netherlands. The current line-up was formed in March 2022 and consists of Lena ter Schegget, Dmitry Ivanov (violins), Lisa Eggen (viola) and Emma Besselaar (cello).

A few months later, in May 2022, they emerged as winners of the Sturgeon Competition 2022 and as such will be making their debuts at a number of important Dutch venues this season.

In the 2022/23 season Skazka Kwartet will perform in venues such as TivoliVredenburg, De Doelen and at the Festival Storioni 2023.

SONORO QUARTET
Netherlands

Founded in 2019 and based in Ghent, Sonoro Quartet has already established itself as one of the leading young string quartets of its generation. Playing over 40 concerts a year in countries such as Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany, Hungary and Ireland, it is one of the most active string quartets in Belgium.
Their repertoire ranges from classical masterpieces to contemporary composers. They have played at venues such as the Bijloke in Ghent, the Bozar in Brussels, the Tivoli Vredenburg in Utrecht, the National Concert Hall in Dublin, the Liszt Academy and the Bartók Memorial House in Budapest, the Desingel in Antwerp and have been invited to play at festivals such as the Midis-Minimes Festival, The Young Generation Bozar, B-Classic, Storioni Festival, West Cork Chamber Music Festival, Rotterdam Chamber Music Society and many others.

VIRIDE KWARTET
Netherlands

Viride Quartet consists of violinists Salomé Bonnema (2001)
and Nadia ten Kate (2000), violist Sedna Heitzman (2000) and cellist Jurre Koopmans (2002).
The members met through attending the Royal Conservatory of The Hague’s school for young talent and started playing together as a quartet in 2017.
The quartet has participated in several international festivals and courses such as the Orlando Festival, Zeister Muziekdagen, Festival Jong Talent Schiermonnikoog, Crans Montana Classics (Switzerland), Seminario Internacional Ciudad de Guadix (Spain) and Festival Residart (Italy). They are also frequently part of Musethica projects directed by Avri Levitan.

QUATUOR WASSILY
France

The violist Dominik Baranowski and the violinist Marine Faup-Pelot, graduates of the CNSM in Lyon and founding members of the Quatuor Wassily in 2012, are joined by the cellist Raphaël Ginzburg and more recently by the violinist Vincent Forestier. They regularly perform in prestigious musical institutions such as La Belle Saison, Le vent sur l’arbre, le Prieuré de Chirens, les Concerts de Vollore, les Jeudis Musivaux à Royan.
Quatuor Wassily has shared the stage with renowned artists such as Anne Gastinel, Dana Ciocarlie, Jean-François Heisser, Marie-Josèphe Jude, Jean-Marc Phillips-Varjabédian, Vincent Segal, Yovan Markovitch. In addition, the quartet often participates in mediation and social activities and collaborates with the international association Musethica. In addition to its master’s degree in chamber music at the CNSM in Lyon, the Wassily has been part of the Villecroze Academy, Musique à Flaine, the Maurice Ravel Academy and the ProQuartet training programme, including studying with members or former members of the Artemis, Belcea, Danel, Ysaÿe and Ebène quartets.
In 2018, the Wassily won the Tremplin Jeunes Quatuors of the Paris Philharmonie and the Musique au Centre Humanis competition, as well as being an FNAPEC winner and produced a first recording, following the Musique au Centre competition. During the 2018-2019 season, the quartet is a resident group at the Opéra de Lyon during the Opéra Underground season.