DANISH STRING QUARTET

The Danish String Quartet has taken the world by storm. The New York Times has described the Danish String Quartet as "a cornucopia of strings served with youthful energy and sensuous spices." They have a particularly captivating playing style that radiates great technical skill and musical quality, an enormous joy of playing and a refreshing approach to well-known classical works. Since its debut in 2002, the Danish String Quartet has demonstrated a special affinity for Scandinavian composers, from Carl Nielsen to Hans Abrahamsen, alongside music of Mozart and Beethoven. The Quartet’s musical interests also encompass Nordic folk music. 

In addition to being GRAMMY® nominees, the Danish String Quartet has received a host of other awards and honors, not least of which is the prestigious Carl Nielsen Prize in 2011. As an offshoot of their musical work, the quartet annually present their own music event, DSQ Festival, which cultivates the concept of “relaxed depth” alongside musical friends and colleagues from places far and wide.

Violinists Frederik Øland and Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen and bratschist Asbjørn Nørgaard met as children at a music summer camp, where they played football in addition to playing music. As teenagers, they studied classical chamber music with Professor Tim Frederiksen of the Royal Danish Academy of Music. In 2008, they became a full-fledged quartet when cellist Fredrik Schøyen Sjölin joined the group.

www.danishquartet.com

Dreamers' Circus

Dreamers' Circus is a force in Nordic world music, a trio that draws inspiration from Scandinavian traditional folk music and inventively expands the sound across all genres. They are young in their expression and energy, but occupy the stage with the well-managed talent that only the truly experienced possess.

Dreamers' Circus is Nikolaj Busk on piano and accordion; Ale Carr on cittern; and Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen (from the Danish String Quartet) on violin. The trio tours all over the world, from Europe to Japan, Australia, and the USA. In 2020, Dreamers' Circus released their fifth album, Blue White Gold (Vertical Records), which received the Album of the Year honor at the Danish Music Awards 2020. The threesome also won the Carl Prize 2021 for Composer of the Year in the Roots category.

www.dreamerscircus.com

Trio Con Brio Copenhagen

Trio Con Brio, recognized as one of the finest piano trios in the world, is well into a successful 21st season. The trio was formed in 1999 at MDW, the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna; Winning almost all of the major competitions for piano trio – including the ARD (Munich), Vittorio Gui (Florence), Trondheim Competition (Norway), Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson (USA), Allianz Prize (Germany) and the prestigious “P2 Artists Prize” (Denmark) – they are regularly heard at the world’s leading venues and concert series. Among these, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Wigmore Hall, Berlin Pierre Boulez-Saal, Concertgebouw, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Seoul Arts Centre, Louvre Paris and of course their beloved “home venues”, the Royal Library and the Tivoli Concert Hall, in Copenhagen. Trio con Brio Copenhagen consists of Korean-born sisters Soo-Kyung Hong (cello) and Soo-Jin Hong (violin) and Soo-Kyung's husband, Danish pianist Jens Elvekjær.

“Works by Beethoven, Schubert and Brahms are transformed in their hands into the alive-and-kicking music of today” said Danish Broadcasting’s Esben Tange when the trio won the “P2 Artists Prize”.

All three members of the trio knew right from the start that they would find their musical identities as a piano trio: “There is something about the configuration of a trio, about that triangle, that somehow focuses and amplifies the special understanding that we all have as people and as musicians. It is both a freedom and a fulfillment.”

Soo-Jin Hong and Soo-Kyung Hong are concertmasters of violin and cello at the Danish National Symphony Orchestra and Jens Elvekjær is Professor of Piano and Chamber Music at the Royal Danish Academy of Music. The trio are recipients of Carl Nielsen and Anne Marie Carl Nielsen's honorary award 2019.

www.trioconbrio.dk

Quatuor Diotima

Quatuor Diotima is one of the most celebrated chamber ensembles in the world today. The group was formed in 1996 by graduates of the Paris Conservatory.

Quatuor Diotima has worked closely with several of the greatest composers of the late 20th century, most notably Pierre Boulez and Helmut Lachemann. The foursome regularly orders new works from the modern era’s most prominent composers, reflecting the music of our time while shedding new light on the masterpieces of the 19th and 20th centuries—namely Beethoven, Schubert, The Second Vienna School (Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern), and Janáček, Debussy, Ravel, and Bartók.

Since 2008, Quatuor Diotima has been the Quartet in Residence at the Région Center-Val de Loire, developing a series of concerts that combine a new generation of string quartets with established ensembles. At l'Abbaye de Noirlac, the group hosts and teaches master classes that attract young composers and quartets from across the globe.

Quatuor Diotima regularly perform in the world's finest halls and concert series. In 2018, they began a three-year span as artists in residence at Radio France in Paris and also received the European Cultural Heritage Award from the French Ministry of Culture.

https://quatuordiotima.fr/

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