Rosa Arnold – violin
Jeanita Vriens-van Tongeren – violin
Annemijn Bergkotte – viola
Rebecca Wise – cello
With sensational programs, Ragazze Quartet has developed into one of the freshest and most leading voices in classical music. In innovative programs, they collaborate with the most original voices in theater, dance and literature. With performances that appeal to all the senses, they succeed in winning an audience for the rich classical music tradition. In this way, they inspire both the seasoned listener and the newcomer for the string quartet repertoire of the past and present.
Ragazze enjoys working with young musicians and theater makers as well as with leading organizations such as NDT, the Kronos Quartet, Orkater and the Holland Festival. In addition, the quartet has been the artistic director of the September Me festival in Amersfoort since 2017. In 2017, Ragazze won the Operadagen Rotterdam Award for “…their idiosyncratic musical theatre approach, their social engagement and the ease with which they dare to think outside their traditional field”, according to the jury.
Ragazze is a regular artist at the Channel Classics label and has already released nine CDs there: ‘Vivere’, ‘Česko’, ‘FourFourThree’, ‘Spiegel’, ‘Bartók Bound vol.1 and vol.2’, ‘Winterreise’, ‘Open Spaces’ and ‘But Not My Soul’.
Jueun Lee - violin
David Baik - violin
David Montreuil - viola
François Lamontagne - cello
The Stelios Quartet is a dynamic string quartet consisting of four unique musicians who together create an intimate and captivating sound.
The Stelios Quartet has received numerous awards, including the prestigious Schiermonnikoog Festival Audience Award 2024 and the Grand Prize at the McGill Chamber Music Competition 2023.
In 2024, the Stelios Quartet was invited to the Netherlands String Quartet Academy (NSKA) and the Schiermonnikoog Festival to work closely with Marc Danel, Gerhard Schultz and Luc-Marie Aguera. They also previously participated in the McGill International String Quartet Academy in Montreal.
The Stelios Quartet has enchanted audiences with performances in Montreal, Ottawa, Newark, Utrecht and Schiermonnikoog. Their upcoming performances include a high-profile series of concerts throughout the Netherlands, with performances in Eelde, Rhenen, Dalfsen and Schiermonnikoog. They will also be guest artists at the 2024 Rendez-Vous Musical de Laterrière festival in Saguenay.
The Stelios Quartet was founded in 2022 at the Schulich School of Music, under the direction of André Roy. The name “Stelios” was chosen to describe the quartet’s musical qualities — “honest and sensitive.”
Tuulia Hero – violin
Patrick Moriarty – cello
Stephanie Tang – piano
Regarded as one of the most exciting chamber music ensembles of their generation, the Paddington Trio has been recognized in international competitions and live performances for its fresh interpretations and exuberant energy. Like the famous bear, Finnish violinist Tuulia Hero, Irish cellist Patrick Moriarty and American pianist Stephanie Tang have made London their home base and have grown into an ensemble of a completely unique and enduring nature. The trio is praised for its close and energetic communication, insightful and imaginative programming, as well as its highly refined interplay. The trio’s great mission is to bridge the gap between new listeners and serious classical music lovers by inviting everyone into their living room of musical discovery and shared love of chamber music.
After starting their first adventure at Paddington Station in 2020, a year after meeting, the trio won First Prize in the 70th Royal Over-Seas League Competition for Strings & Piano Ensemble. Since then they have won First Prize in the 2024 Triomphe de l'Art International Competition, the 2024 Storioni Competition, the 2023 The Parkhouse Award at Wigmore Hall, the 2023 Schiermonnikoog Festival Audience Award and the 2022 NEW FORMATS Project Prize. They are currently generously supported by the City Music Foundation, Kirckman Concert Society and GBZ Management. In summer 2023 the trio completed an Artist Fellowship programme at their alma mater, the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London, and will continue to teach and inspire young ensembles through the Chamber Fellowship Programme at the Royal Northern College of Music in the 2024/2025 semester.
In March 2023, the Paddington Trio made their concerto debut performing the Beethoven Triple Concerto with Jan Söderblom and the Jyväskylä Symphony Orchestra in Finland. They have performed in prominent venues and series including Wigmore Hall, LSO St. Luke’s, Oxford Coffee Concerts, St. George’s Bristol and BBC Total Immersion. Their most recent debuts have been at TivoliVredenburg and Schiermonnikoog Festival in the Netherlands, the Edinburgh Fringe, Buxton International and Brighton Festivals, and Lake District Summer Music. The trio has performed on YLE Radio (Finland) and BBC Radio 3 In Tune.
Tuulia, Patrick and Stephanie have had the privilege of working closely with internationally renowned musicians such as Eberhard Feltz, Marc Danel, Gary Hoffman, Levon Chilingirian, Robert Levin, Johannes Meissl, David Dolan and members of the Ébène, Takács, Endellion and Meta4 quartets. They joined the European Chamber Music Academy in 2023 and also receive mentorship from ChamberStudio and the Netherlands String Quartet Academy. The trio studied with Thomas Adès during the IMS Prussia Cove’s 50th anniversary masterclasses.
Tuulia plays a 1707 Stradivarius violin, generously loaned by the Sibelius Academy, University of the Arts Helsinki.
Osimun Quartet is a young group formed in 2022, consisting of four Spanish saxophonists, who aim to express their own language through chamber music. The members Diego Dávila (soprano saxophone), Fátima Alcázar (alto saxophone), Inés González (tenor saxophone) and Ricard Martínez (baritone saxophone) are currently based in Cologne (Germany), where they study with José Luis Estellés, and in Maastricht. Their continuous quest for growth and ambition to further develop themselves as chamber musicians has recently led them to the Netherlands String Quartet Academy (NSKA), where they study with some influential figures in the chamber music world, including Quatuor Ébène and Eberhard Feltz. Furthermore, they are also part of the ensembles of the European Chamber Music Academy (ECMA), where the main teachers are Johannes Meissl and Patrick Jüdt. They have recently been selected to participate in the 2024/25 and 2025/26 Musethica seasons.
Despite the ensemble’s youth, they have already performed in some of the most prestigious venues in Europe, such as the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Muziekgebouw in Eindhoven, Bijloke in Ghent, Tauber Philharmonie in Germany, NedPhO-Koepel in Amsterdam, Theater aan het Vrijthof in Maastricht and the Paleis van Cultuur in Târgu Mureş (Romania). They have also achieved recent successes, such as reaching the finals of the prestigious Dutch Classical Talent competition for the 2025 edition; As finalists, they have won a 15-concert tour of the Netherlands (between January and February 2025), and the grand finale will take place in June 2025. Among other achievements, they have won the first prize in the Storioni Competition 2023, Dörken Stiftung 2023 and reached the finals in renowned competitions such as the Grachtenfestival 2023 in Amsterdam, Juventudes Musicales of Spain, Big Little Music Competition in Ghent, Classicspark and the Music Awards Maastricht 2022. In addition, they have received a grant from Jeunesses Musicales Deutschland twice (2023, 2024).
Their main ambition within chamber music is to give a new color and setting to classical music through their own transcriptions, while at the same time trying to expand and broaden the original repertoire through direct contact and collaboration with contemporary composers.
In addition, some members of the ensemble combine their performance with teaching at various music conservatories in Germany.
Their upcoming agenda includes several concerts at renowned music festivals in Germany, the Netherlands and Spain.
George Dumitriu - violin
Pablo Rodríguez - violin
Yanna Pelser - viola
Thomas van Geelen - cello
You might call it chamber music jazz, but the members of the North Sea String Quartet (NSSQ) would be the last to try to limit their work to stylistic descriptions alone. As prominent improvising string players in the Dutch and international music world, they are influenced by modern jazz, classical music, world music and folk. Jazz journalist Götz Buhler wrote about their performance: ‘With their classical, world and folk influences, together with a lot of jazz, these improvising string players have created one of the most exciting and acclaimed concerts of this year’s inJazz.’
The NSSQ consists of violinists George Dumitriu and Pablo Rodríguez, violist Yanna Pelser and cellist Thomas van Geelen. Their desire for an acoustic ensemble that grooves and swings, moves freely in collective improvisations and also masters the classical bowed sound, led them to found the quartet in Rotterdam in 2016. They have performed in a wide range of prestigious concert halls and festivals throughout Europe, such as Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Bimhuis, North Sea Jazz Festival, Brosella Festival, Jazz and The City Salzburg and Canarias Jazz & Más. Frequent collaborators include Trio da Kali (ML) – in an award-winning project they have previously recorded with the Kronos Quartet, Javier Infante (ES), Lílian Vieira (BR/NL) and Roland Satterwhite (US/DE). At this year’s North Sea Jazz Festival they performed with singer-songwriter Samora Pinderhughes (US), as well as with Trio da Kali.
Darja Serck - violin
Livia Stefani - violin
Marinha Campos - viola
Marta Jiménez Rodríguez - cello
The Hera Quartet is based in Amsterdam and was founded in October 2022 when the four musicians met at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, where they are currently studying. The quartet is now in the class of Dmitri Ferschtman at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam.
Since November 2023, the Hera Quartet has been an official part of the NSKA String Quartet Academy in Amsterdam, where they have the opportunity to learn from Marc Danel and Eberhard Feltz.
Since the beginning, they have given concerts throughout the Netherlands. In September 2023, they played the preliminary concert of the Danish String Quartet. In January 2024, they have been invited to play the preliminary concert for the Jerusalem Quartet during the prestigious String Quartet Biennale festival in the Muziekgebouw, Amsterdam.
The quartet has been accepted to the Isa-mdw summer academy and the prestigious Chigiana Academy (Siena, Italy), where they studied under the guidance of Bruno Giuranna.
In 2024, the Hera Quartet was selected to join the Le Dimore del Quartetto network.
The Flare Quartet, formed in 2020, consists of Dutch violinists Linde van de Ven and Maartje Rosmulder, together with Gabriel Torner Alsina (viola) from Spain and Laurence Gaudreau (cello) from Canada. They form a fresh and innovative ensemble that mainly focuses on 20th and 21st century repertoire and presents this to its audience in an accessible way. We want to seek out and perform new classical repertoire, and in this way give our own twist to the string quartet. In addition, we like to collaborate with artists outside the classical world such as Phoria, Praam and soon Liliane Chlela. The quartet is currently taking lessons with Marc Danel, among others, as part of the NSKA. The ensemble has received coaching from renowned chamber musicians including Sebastian Koloski (Utrecht String Quartet), Gregor Sigl (Artemis Quartet), Daniel Rowland and the Prazak Quartet, and has played repeatedly at venues such as Gaudeamus, Le Guess Who? Festival, and TivoliVredenburg. The quartet has performed in the Grote Zaal of TivoliVredenburg, the Open Air Theatre in the Vondelpark, and Paradiso Tolhuistuin in Amsterdam, among others.
With members hailing from Germany, Australia, Spain and Indonesia, Essenza Ensemble is an eclectic chamber music quintet based in the Netherlands. Founded in 2022 at Codarts University for the Arts (Rotterdam), Essenza Ensemble consists of a diverse combination of flute, clarinet, violin, cello and piano. As members of the Dutch String Quartet Academy "NSKA" since May 2023, Essenza Ensemble brings an energetic atmosphere to the stage with a collection of contemporary works and arrangements of masterpieces from the past. The ensemble has performed throughout the Netherlands to rave reviews from audiences, including participation in the Zoom! festival in June 2024 and in masterclasses with renowned musicians such as Marc Danel, Petr Prause, Pierre Colombet, Gordan Nikolić, Gijs Kramers, Julien Hervé, Raphaël Schenkel, Juliette Hurel, Bruno Bonansea, Julie Moulin, Simone Gramaglia and Jules Van Hessen. From October 2024, Essenza Ensemble will participate in the chamber music program at the Folkwang University of Arts in Essen, Germany, under the direction of Matthew Hunt.
Since their formation, the Elmore Quartet has received mentorship from some of the world’s leading chamber musicians, including Donald Grant (Elias Quartet), Petr Prause (Talich Quartet), Henk Guittart (Schoenberg Quartet), David Waterman (Endellion Quartet) and Marc Danel (Quatuor Danel).
The Elmores accepted the position of Studio Quartet at the RNCM in 2020 and in the same year won second prize in the CAVATINA Intercollegiate Chamber Music Competition at Wigmore Hall. Their journey continued with their appointment as Junior Fellows in Chamber Music at the Royal Northern College of Music from 2021 to 2023.
Over the past two years, the Elmore Quartet has recorded for BBC Radio 3 and performed at renowned venues across the UK, including Wigmore Hall, Conway Hall, the Pitville Pump Room and the Holywell Music Room in Oxford.
To complement their awards, the quartet launched the Elmore Chamber Music Festival in 2020, which has since become an annual event in the Gloucestershire village of Elmore each August.
In 2023, the Elmores were finalists in the Irene Steels-Wilsing International String Quartet Competition in Germany and were made members of the renowned Netherlands String Quartet Academy (NSKA). They have also received invitations to festivals including Casa del Quartetto (Italy), Crans Montana Master Classes (Switzerland), Residart Festival (Italy) and are looking forward to participating in the Vibre Festival (France) in spring 2024.
They currently hold the position of Hans Keller Chamber Fellows at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. The Elmore Quartet has performed extensively throughout the UK and Europe over the past year. Notable collaborations have included the Jerusalem Quartet, Elias Quartet and pianists Keigo Mukawa and Victor Lim.
The members of the quartet first met in the Ricciotti Ensemble, a Dutch street symphony orchestra. The ensemble was founded in 2009. In the first two years after that, the Dudok Quartet Amsterdam studied with the Alban Berg Quartett at the Hochschule für Musik in Cologne. After that, they studied with Marc Danel at the Dutch String Quartet Academy.
In June 2013, the Dudok Quartet Amsterdam completed their studies at the Dutch String Quartet Academy with the highest distinction. In November 2014, the Dudok Quartet was awarded the Kersjes Prize, a prize that is awarded annually to an ensemble with exceptional talent in the Dutch chamber music scene. The quartet has also received top prizes in various international string quartet competitions in Bordeaux (Concours International de Quatuor à Cordes), Weimar (Internationaler Joseph Joachim Kammermusikwettbewerb), the Netherlands (Charles Hennen Competition/Orlando Competition) and Poland (Radom First International String Quartet Competition). In 2018, the Dudok Quartet Amsterdam was selected to participate in the Le Dimore del Quartetto project.
Many well-known contemporary classical composers, such as Kaija Saariaho, Mark-Anthony Turnage, Calliope Tsoupaki and Max Knigge, have collaborated with the quartet on their music. In 2014, the Dudok Quartet Amsterdam signed for several recordings with Resonus Classics, the world's first fully digital classical music label. Both their first two albums, which combine Haydn and Mozart’s core string quartet repertoire with both György Ligeti’s string quartets and world premieres of the ensemble’s own arrangements, were unanimously praised in international press reviews, including an Editor’s Choice in Gramophone magazine. The Dudok Quartet Amsterdam has performed with many renowned guest musicians and has appeared at many prestigious festivals and venues in Europe and the United States of America.
Willem Marinus Dudok (1884 – 1974) was a famous Dutch architect. He was also a great lover of music: he came from a musical family and composed music in his spare time. “I owe more to composers than to any architect,” he wrote. “I deeply feel the common core of music and architecture: ultimately they both derive their value from the right proportions.”
Doré Quartet is an emerging quartet with young members from Italy and Spain, founded in 2021. The quartet consists of violinists Ilaria Taioli and Samuele Di Gioia, violist José Manuel Muriel López and cellist Caterina Vannoni.
After meeting at the Maastricht Conservatory, the quartet was admitted to the Accademia Stauffer in Cremona in October 2022 under the guidance of the Quartetto di Cremona. From 2023 onwards, the quartet regularly participates in masterclasses at the Dutch String Quartet Academy in Utrecht.
The quartet will participate in masterclasses given by Marc Danel (Quatuor Danel), Ettore Causa (Yale School of Music), Miguel Da Silva (Ysaÿe Quartet), Isabel Villanueva and Mark Messenger (Royal College of Music), Pavel Nikl (Pavel Haas Quartet) and Pierre Colombet (Quatuor Ébène).
In August 2022, they were selected to participate in the Orlando European Summer Course for Chamber Music with a scholarship, where they had the opportunity to follow masterclasses with Kristian Winther, Shunske Sato, Henk Guittart (former Shönberg Quartet), Anna Da Silva Chen, Peter Brunt (Osiris Trio) and the members of the RusQuartet. In addition, they performed in Heerlen, Landgraaf and Kerkrade.
In May 2023, Doré Quartet participated in the Musethica/ECMA session in Grafenegg, Austria, where the members had the opportunity to work and perform with Eckart Runge (Artemis Quartet) and receive a lesson from Johannes Meissl.
In June 2023, the quartet received a grant from the Willem Mengelberg Fund of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, with which they participated in the Zeister Muziekdagen, a summer festival in the Netherlands where they followed masterclasses with Alexander Pavlovsky, members of the Jerusalem Quartet, Schumann Quartet and Ida Bieler (Melos Quartet).
Doré Quartet has performed for major music festivals and cultural institutions in the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium. Prominent performances include: Backstage Klassiek (Parkstad Limburg Theater Heerlen, Netherlands), Orlando Festival (Theater Kerkrade, Netherlands), Musica Sacra Kunstenfestival (Theater aan het Vrijthof in Maastricht, Netherlands and Cultuurcentrum in Hasselt, Belgium), Euregional Outreach Network Conservatorium Maastricht Tour (Theater aan het Vrijthof in Maastricht and Muziekgebouw in Eindhoven, Netherlands).
They won the 1st prize at the 3rd Swiss International Music Competition and the 2nd prize at the 14th International Music Competition "Luigi Cerritelli". In addition, after participating in the highly specialized course "Corso Marco Allegri" in Faenza, the quartet participated in the II Edition of the "Filippo Nicosia" Chamber Music Prize where the jury awarded viola player José Manuel a fine viola made by luthier Giorgio Grisales.
Doré Quartet has been selected to participate in the network of Le Dimore del Quartetto.
The Damsco Quartet is an up and coming string quartet based in Amsterdam. The four young musicians have only been playing together since 2022, what started as a fun and challenging activity for people who shared a great love for chamber music and very soon after they started playing together, they stormed the stages. Their first performance at the festival Forbidden Music Regained was received with great acclaim and was followed by a CD recording of Henriëtte Bosmans' string quartet for publisher Donemus. These recordings are released on streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music and more. The quartet is taught by Dmitry Ferschtman and other teachers/professors from the Conservatorium van Amsterdam. Shortly after Forbidden Music Regained, the quartet was invited for a live radio show ''Concertzender Actueel'' where they talked about their meeting and future plans for the Damsco Quartet. From 2023, the Damsco quartet started their studies at NSKA under the mentorship of Marc Danels.
The Belinfante Quartet is known for their sincere interpretation of the string quartet core repertoire, as well as their lively performance of works by lesser-known composers. Praised by the NRC with ‘Gloeiend samenspel en experimenteerdrift’ for their debut CD, the quartet aims to continue this with their own arrangements of folk music.
They study at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover with Oliver Wille, and are also affiliated with the Dutch String Quartet Academy. They were recently selected to participate in MUSA (European Young Musicians Soft Skills Alliance), a professional European training program for young string quartets, funded by Erasmus+.
The Belinfante Quartet also participated in the SQBA Residency of the String Quartet Biennale Amsterdam, where they were allowed to play at the concert during the last ‘corona’ edition, which was cancelled due to restrictions, and also premiered M. Wantenaar's first string quartet.
In addition to concerts, the Belinfante Quartet enjoys working with artists from other disciplines.
In 2020, they collaborated with the urban dance group Static and Who's Next for workshops and performances with dance and classical music at secondary schools in Almere.
In 2021, they combined Haydn's 'Sieben Letzten Worte' with projected visualizations of the music, created by Jordi Cardenas.
The quartet's name honors Frieda Belinfante, cellist and the first female conductor in Europe. Her sincerity, determination and fervor, both in music and in other aspects of her life, are a great source of inspiration.
The Belinfante Quartet is supported by the Kersjesfonds, Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds, Anja Fichte Stiftung and the Heij Konijn Fonds. We would like to thank them all for their generous support.
Margot Kolodziej - violin
Julia Kleinsmann - violin
Minna Svedberg - viola
Renée Timmer - cello
With a fresh perspective, the ADAM Quartet is looking for ways to shed its own light on the string quartet while remaining true to the essence of the genre.
Since graduating from the Conservatory of Amsterdam, they have been part of the Netherlands String Quartet Academy (NSKA) since 2020, and from September 2022 within the full-time two-year post-academic program. In 2021, ADAM was one of the winners of a grant from the Kersjes Fund.
With great courage and daring, ADAM has debuted since 2020 on major Dutch stages and festivals, such as the String Quartet Biennale Amsterdam 2020, Grachtenfestival, Stift Festival, Schiermonnikoog Festival, Storioni Festival, Spiegelzaal and a crossover program with jazz saxophonist Kika Sprangers. At the NSKA String Quartet Festival in June 2022, ADAM premiered no fewer than six commissioned compositions, written by composers from all continents.
Keizersgracht 241
1016 EA Amsterdam
info@nska.nl
