Outstanding Quartet playing at the 2024 “Premio Paolo Borciani”

Competitions

11 July 2024

First Prize awarded to the Fibonacci Quartet

Taking place every 3 years, the “Premio Paolo Borciani international String Quartet Competition” was founded in 1987 in honor of the first violinist of Quartetto Italiano, Paolo Borciani (1922-1985) and has awarded some of the finest quartets in the world, including the Keller Quartet, Artemis Quartet, Pavel Haas Quartet, Benewitz Quartet and Kelemen Quartet. Following the 2021 edition, which took place during the last months of the Covid-19 pandemic and produced no first prize winner, this year´s competition featured not only an exceptional jury, but also a number of outstanding quartets.

First prize was awarded to the UK and Spain-based Fibonacci Quartet, which received a €25,000 cash prize, an artistic residency in Reggio Emilia for the 2024 – 2026 seasons, and an international tour coordinated by Lorenzo Baldrighi Artists Management in collaboration with Konzertdirektion Hampl. The quartet also received the audience prize of €2,000.

The Fibonacci Quartet is one of Europe's leading young string quartets, having performed at venues such as Wigmore Hall, Auditorio Sony, Conway Hall, and Museo del Violino, Cremona. The Quartet is a Resident Ensemble at the Escuela Superior de Musica Reina Sofia in Madrid with Guenter Pichler and at the Dutch String Quartet Academy in Amsterdam with Marc Danel. They have received mentoring from Quartetto di Cremona at the Stauffer Centre and have been privileged to work closely with Eberhard Feltz.

The Quartet frequently performs in association with ProQuartet in France and Dimore del Quartetto in Italy, and tours around the UK in their capacity as Philip & Dorothy Green Young Artists. Additionally, the Quartet regularly gives radio and television broadcasts including on Dutch National Television and BBC Radio 3. They were privileged to collaborate with Kaija Saariaho on a new recording of Terra Memoria made at the Barbican as part of the BBC Total Immersion series.

Second prize of €10,000 went to the South Korea-based Eden Quartet, which also received the Under-20 prize of €1,000. The third prize of €5,000 was won by the UK-based Elmore quartet.

There was a number of additional prizes at this year´s Borciani Competition, including a €3,000 special prize for the best performance of a new commissioned string quartet by Gérard Pesson, which was awarded to the Ast Quartet, while the Jeunesses Musicales Deutschland prize went to the Eos Quartet, receiving a scholarship worth €6,000 to attend the 2025 International Chamber Music Campus Schloss.

Special mention was also made of the Arete Quartet, ‘for the unique voice they have shown in the first three rounds of the Premio Borciani 2024’. Following a medical emercency of its cellist, the Arete Quartet was unable to continue after the third round of the competition but nevertheless was lauded by the entire jury for its outstanding performances.