ARTEMIS QUARTET
from Berlin

" . . . daring, edge-of-the-seat playing, visceral energy,and rich four-part imagination . . . "
-The New York Times

UPCOMING TOURS:
April 2-16, 2008

click here for the artists' website

Natalia Prischepenko and
Heime Müller, violins
Volker Jacobsen, viola
Eckart Runge, cello

The Berlin-based Artemis Quartet was formed in 1989 at the Musikhochschule, or Academy of Music, in Lübeck, Germany, and has been performing with its current lineup since 1994. Influential teachers and mentors were Walter Levin, the Emerson Quartet, the Juilliard Quartet, and the Alban Berg Quartet. Top awards in the German ARD Music Competition and in the prestigious “Premio Borciani” heralded the Quartet’s international breakthrough. Today the Artemis Quartet is hearalded one of the top ensembles of its kind.

Deferring the opportunity for an immediate and meteoric career, the members of the Artemis Quartet embarked on a period of intensive work to further hone their musicianship, and in 1998 the ensemble moved to Vienna for a year of intensive study. In 1999 the four musicians accepted an invitation for a three-month residency at the Berlin Science Academy. Their debut performance with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in June 1999 marked the energetic resumption of their concert activity.

For a number of years, the ensemble programmed a concert series for the radio station WDR Cologne, and this was followed in the year 2004 with the Quartet’s own series with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. From 2003 until 2005, the Artemis Quartet was part of the “New Generation Artists Scheme” program of BBC Radio 3, with concerts and recordings in a number of cities in the U.K. In addition to a busy concert schedule taking in all major music centers in Europe, the U.S., Japan, South America, and Australia, as well as performances at international music festivals, the Artemis Quartet is also committed to teaching. Since the summer semester of 2005, the four musicians have been Visiting Professors for Chamber Music at the University of the Arts in Berlin; they also take turns teaching as part of a Visiting Professorship at the “Reine Elisabeth” Conservatory in Brussels.

From its very inception, the Artemis Quartet has always assigned high priority to performing together with other musicians: Sabine Meyer, Elisabeth Leonskaja, David Geringas, Juliane Banse, and Leif Ove Andsnes are just some of their regular partners. Another important influence on the quartet’s development has been its curiosity regarding new music and its engagement with contemporary composers. During the 2004-2005 season alone, they performed two world premieres of compositions commissioned from Mauricio Sotelos and Jörg Widmanns.

The Artemis Quartet encountered the film medium quite early in their career, first as guest performers with the Alban Berg Quartet in the movie “Death and the Maiden” (EMI, 1996) by Bruno Monsaingeon, and again in 2001, when the great director dedicated the filmic portrait “Strings Attached” (WDR) to the ensemble’s performance of Beethoven’s Great Fugue, Op. 133.

In 2005, the Artemis Quartet signed an exclusive contract with Virgin Classics/EMI, which provides for at least ten new releases within a period of five years. The first of these, in October 2005, was a re-release of the Ligeti String Quartets and a new recording of the Beethoven Quartets Op. 59/1 and 95, all of which attest to a continuity that took its departure with “ars musici.” This arc will be continued with the planned re-releases of the Beethoven Quartets Op. 18/2, 59/3, 131 and 132—considered to be “reference recordings” by music critics—building towards a release of the complete recordings. March 2006 saw the release of a CD of the String Sextets by Schönberg, Berg, and R. Strauss, featuring the performances of Valentin Erben and the late Thomas Kakuska.

The Artemis Quartet has been the recipient of numerous awards: it was the first-ever quartet to be awarded the prestigious Music Prize of the Association of German Critics in 2001. The quartet’s CD recording of Beethoven’s Op. 59/3 and Op. 132s won the Special Prize of the German Recording Critics in 2000, and in 2002 they twice were awarded the Diapason d'Or (Beethoven/Ligeti). In 2003, the Association of the Beethoven House in Bonn granted the Artemis Quartet honorary membership for services in the interpretation of the works of Beethoven. In 2004, the quartet was awarded the 23rd “Premio Internazionale Accademia Musicale Chigiana” in Siena. In June 2006, the Deutsche Phono Akademie (German Phonographic Academy), the cultural institute of the German recording industry, awarded the ECHO Klassik Prize for best recording in the category "Chamber Music Recording of the Year" to the Artemis Quartet for their recording of Beethoven Quartets Op. 95 and 59/1. 

December 2006