Engegård Quartet

About Engegård Quartet

Engegård Quartet

Formed under the midnight sun in Lofoten in 2005, the Engegård Quartet has rapidly become one of Norway's most sought after ensembles. Their bold, fresh interpretations of the classical repertoire combined with a deep attachment to their Scandinavian roots has attracted international acclaim, and inspired some innovative partnerships and programming.

The quartet's debut CD was praised as 'breathtaking' in The Strad, while their second release won Pizzicato magazine's 'Supersonic Award'. Their CD of works by Grieg, Sibelius, and Olav Anton Thommessen was praised by Tully Potter in Music Web International as 'what Grieg lovers have been waiting for'.

The Engegård Quartet has a busy concert schedule throughout Scandinavia and further afield. They have performed in some of Europe's finest venues including the Mozarteum in Salzburg and Prague's Rudolfinum, as well as several tours to South America. The Engegård Quartet have been delighted to appear in international festivals such as Delft Chamber Music Festival, SoNoRo Festival in Bucharest, and Heidelberg's Streichquartettfest.

Deeply committed to today's composers and to keeping the string quartet repertoire alive and developing, the Engegård Quartet has commissioned several works throughout their career. They have focused first and foremost on Norwegian composers including Maja Solveig Kjelstrup Ratkje, Olav Anton Thommessen, Therese Birkelund Ulvo and Cecilie Ore. International commissions have included Olli Mustonen, Philip Dutton and Julian Anderson.

The Engegård Quartet's acclaimed collaborations with the jazz violinist Ola Kvernberg and hardanger fiddler Nils Økland have led to commissions including the Telemark Quintet from Nils Anders Mortensen, and Hypnagogia and The Flight from Ola Kvernberg. Several of these commissions have been recorded by the Engegård Quartet.

On the classical front, the Engegård Quartet has had the honour to work with (among others) Sir András Schiff, Leif Ove Andsnes, Christian Ihle Hadland, Paul Lewis, Dènes Várion, Nabuko Imai, Kim Kashkashian and Emma Johnson MBE.

The Engegård Quartet's concert and recording programmes reflect their passion for the core quartet repertoire and their desire to discover and share new musical worlds. They have recorded the complete string quartets by Robert Schumann, Catharinus Elling and Johan Kvandal, and are recording the complete string quartets by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. You will find the Engegård Quartet's recordings on 2L, BIS, Simax and LAWO Classics.

From psalms to polkas, Norway's folk music tradition has been part of the Engegård Quartet's repertoire from the start. They have recently released several folk music videos, many in their own arrangements for string quartet.

Members of the quartet are deeply involved in bringing superb chamber music to Norway—Arvid Engegård as Co-Founder and Artistic Director of the Lofoten International Chamber Music Festival, and several quartet members are deeply involved in the Oslo Quartet Series. The Engegård Quartet's own '1–2–3 Festival' focuses on one composer over a long weekend, and has proved immensely popular ever since its inaugural year of 2016. Every November, in "Nynorskens hus," right in the center of Oslo, this classical minifestival provides a feast of chamber music, song, piano works, and lectures. Read more on 123festival.no.

Arvid Engegård plays a Jean Baptiste Vuillaume violin (1858), on loan from Dextra. Laura Custodio Sabas plays a Jean Baptiste Vuillaume violin (1857). Juliet Jopling plays a Giuseppe Guadagnini viola (1770) and Jan Clemens Carlsen plays a Giacomo Zanoli cello (1737) on loan from Dextra.

The Engegård Quartet is supported by the Norwegian Arts Council.