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Notos Quartett
Since its foundation in 2007, the Notos Quartett has won six first prizes and various special awards in numerous international competitions including those in Holland, Italy, England and China and has since established itself internationally, performing in renowned European concert halls such as the Berlin Philharmonie, Konzerthaus Berlin, Konzerthaus Vienna, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Tonhalle Zürich,
BOZAR Brussels as well as important festivals all over Europe and travels regularly abroad to Russia, Australia, South Africa and Asia, and especially to China and Japan.
In addition to the well-known masterpieces, the quartet is particularly committed to contemporary music and world premieres. For the 2019/20 season, premieres of works by Beat Furrer, Judit Varga and Bernhard Gander dedicated to the quartet were scheduled, which due to the pandemic will now be performed in Vienna, Innsbruck and Berlin in 2020/21.
The musicians also endeavor to track down lost and forgotten works of the piano quartet genre and to present them to a wider audience. This is also reflected in their debut CD Hungarian Treasures, which was released by Sony Classical/RCA in February 2017 and includes the world premiere recording of the piano quartet by Béla Bartók, for whose rediscovery the ensemble attained worldwide attention and recognition. The second recording, again released by SONY Classical, is dedicated entirely to the great Romantic Johannes Brahms – with the famous Piano Quartet in G minor and an arrangement of the Symphony no. 3 by Andreas Nikolai Tarkmann created especially for the Notos Quartett.
The great interest in the Notos Quartett and its extraordinary programs are documented by numerous concert recordings, interviews and portraits in radio and television at home and abroad, such as ARD, ZDF, Deutschlandfunk, BBC, France Musique, ORF, NHK Japan and IPR USA.
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It is important to the musicians to take a stand on social issues of our time. Notos were the first artists to return the prestigious German music prize ECHO Klassik that had been awarded to them in 2017 in the category Newcomer of the Year in response to the ECHO Pop Awards in April 2018, when an album with anti-Semitic language was distinguished. Notos Quartett triggered a protest movement that was joined by many well-known artists such as Igor Levit and Daniel Barenboim. As a result, the ECHO brand was abolished.
The social commitment of the ensemble is also reflected in its promotion of young musicians – another important aspect of the quartet’s work. They have taught at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, led the masterclass Saigon Chamber Music in Vietnam and organizes the annual Notos Chamber Music Academy, which it founded in 2019 in cooperation with the Jeunesses Musicales Deutschland in Weikersheim.
Please visit www.notosquartett.de/en
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