Artis Quartett Wien

Founded in 1980, the Artis Quartet studied first at the University of Music in Vienna, then, having won prizes in competitions in Cambridge, England (1983), Evian, France (1984) and Yellow Springs, USA (1985) and in 1984/85 being holder of the Friedlander Fellowship studied with the LaSalle Quartet at the College Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati, USA.

In 1985 the ensemble began its international career performing in the most important venues and centres of music, including: London, Paris, New York, Washington, Los Angeles, Tokyo, etc. In Vienna, where the members of the Artis-Quartet live, their cycle of concerts at the Wiener Musikverein has been an annual event since 1988.

Notable moments in the history of the Quartet include the invitation to play all twenty-three Mozart quartets in a series of concerts in both Tokyo (Suntory Hall) and Vienna during the Mozart Year 1991. This success was repeated with cycles of the complete Schubert quartets in 1997 at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, DeDoelen in Rotterdam and the Musikverein in Vienna.

The Artis Quartet has been invited by prestigious international festivals such as: Salzburger Festspiele, Wiener Festwochen, SchleswigHolstein, Ravinia, Ludwigsburg, Lockenhaus, etc.

They have recorded more than 20 CDs. Besides the "classical" quartet repertoire of Mozart, Beethoven Schubert, Brahms, Mendelssohn, Dvorak, Smetana and Schumann they also include works by Wolf, Webern, Gielen, Schönberg, Weigl and Berg, and have won such international awards as the Grand prix international du disque/Academie Charles Cros the Prix Caecilia, the Diapason d´Or and the Wiener Flötenuhr.

In October 2000 the Artis recording of the Zemlinsky quartets 3 & 4 won the German "Echo Klassik 2000" award for the best chamber music recording of the year in the 20th century category.

The members of the Artis Quartet teach at the Universities of Vienna and Graz and givemasterclasses around the world.