The Quartet
Belenus is the Celtic god of the arts and has been the namesake of the Belenus Quartet ever since its foundation in 2004. The Quartet’s membership has been unchanged since 2014. Hitherto the Belenus Quartet has primarily performed in Switzerland and its neighbouring countries, its repertoire ranging from the early Haydn quartets to contemporary compositions. The Quartet is also renowned for its unusual crossover projects and collaborations with chamber music partners including Valentin Erben, Claudius Herrmann, Thomas Grossenbacher, Anna Malikova, Benjamin Engeli, Werner Bärtschi, Fabio di Casola and the Szymanowski Quartet. In 2016, for example, it performed a tribute to Billie Holiday to great acclaim with the eminent Swiss composer and saxophonist Daniel Schnyder at the famous St Moritz Jazz Festival. The Belenus Quartet’s CD recordings are testimony to its musical virtuosity and versatility, encompassing works by Haydn, Bartok, Schubert, Bärmann, Schumann and Shostakovich, as well as Daniel Schnyder’s String Quartet No. 4.
The Quartet has received artistic inspiration from Rainer Schmidt (Hagen Quartet) and Claudius Herrmann (Gringolts Quartet). In addition, the group has attended master classes given by Walter Levin (LaSalle Quartet), Oliver Wille (Kuss Quartet), Natalia Prishepenko (Artemis Quartet), Eberhard Feltz (Hanns Eisler School of Music, Berlin) and Valentin Erben (Alban Berg Quartet). Between 2008 and 2012 the Belenus Quartet benefitted from the guidance of Stephan Goerner (Carmina Quartet) and from 2009 to 2014 it completed a course in chamber music under Isabel Charisius (Alban Berg Quartet) at Lucerne School of Music.
At the 9th International “Franz Schubert and Modern Music” Competition in 2015, the Belenus Quartet was awarded both First Prize and the Audience Prize. As a finalist in the 2013 Migros Kulturprozent Chamber Music Competition, the Quartet was accepted onto Migros’s concert agency for talented new performers. In addition, in 2012 it won First Prize at both the Interpretation Competition for Contemporary Music at Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) and the Kiwanis Competition. In the same year it was awarded Third Prize atf the Hans Schaeuble Foundation Competition. In 2011, 2012 and 2013 it was a prize winner at the ORPHEUS Swiss Chamber Music Competition and in 2012 the Quartet was awarded a special prize for the best Haydn interpretation at the 1st Sandor Vegh International String Quartet Competition.