Arcanto Quartett
Antje Weithaas, violin
Daniel Sepec, violin
Tabea Zimmermann, viola
Jean-Guihen Queyras, cello
"The Arcanto Quartet is one of the most stimulating and enjoyable ensembles to listen to, no matter what it is playing. Freshness, close rapport, finesse, and a blend of eloquence and vitality have been hallmarks of its style ever since its debut." (Telegraph)
Antje Weithaas, Daniel Sepec, Tabea Zimmermann, and Jean-Guihen Queyras founded the Arcanto Quartet in 2002 after several years of playing chamber music together in various combinations. The four musical soulmates, who also share a close personal friendship, quickly took the chamber music world by storm with their spirited playing, fuelled by the joy of bringing music to life.
The Arcanto Quartet's highly successful concert debut took place in June of 2004, in Stuttgart. Since then, the quartet has performed all over the world, for example at New York's Carnegie Hall, the Vancouver Recital Series, the Gulbenkian Foudnation in Lisbon, the Palau de la Música in Barcelona, the Philharmonie Köln and the Vienna Konzerthaus as well as at the Rheingau Music Festival, Kunstfest Weimar, and festivals in Helsinki, Edinburgh and Montreux. Following the success of its first two CDs, which feature quartets by Bartok and Brahms as well as Brahms's Piano Quintet op. 34 with Silke Avenhaus, the Arcanto Quartet released its third CD for Harmonia Mundi with works by Ravel, Dutilleux and Debussy in the autumn of 2010.
After touring Israel in 2008, Japan in 2009 and North America in 2010, the Arcanto Quartet will return to Japan in January 2012. The quartet will also return to Wigmore Hall, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam and the Auditorio Nacional de Musica in Madrid in the 2011/12 season, as well as make debuts at the Prinzregententheater in Munich, the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden and the Cité de la Musique in Paris.
One can hardly imagine a better advocate for music than Antje Weithaas. For Antje Weithaas, not only does music itself take the fore but also its conveyance to the public. As one of the most sought-after soloists and chamber musicians of her generation, Weithaas has a wide-ranging repertoire that includes the great concertos by Mozart, Beethoven, and Schumann, modern classics by Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Ligeti and Gubaidulina, and lesser performed concertos by Korngold, Hartmann, and Schoeck. Antje Weithaas has played with Germany's leading orchestras, including the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Bamberger Symphoniker, and the major German radio orchestras. She has also played with numerous internationally renowned symphonies such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Philharmonia Orchestra, BBC Symphony, and the leading orchestras of the Netherlands, Scandinavia, and Asia. She has worked with illustrious conductors Vladimir Ashkenazy, Sir Neville Marriner, Sakari Oramo, Thomas Dausgaard, Andrej Boreyko, and Christian Zacharias. Antje Weithaas is particularly active in the field of chamber music and has collaborated with Lars Vogt, Christian Tetzlaff, and Sharon Kam, among others. She has been a professor of violin at the Hochschule für Musik "Hanns Eisler" Berlin since 2004.
Daniel Sepec studied with Dieter Vorholz in Frankfurt and Gerhard Schulz in Vienna. Since 1993, Daniel Sepec has been concertmaster of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, and he regularly solos with the orchestra under conductors such as Daniel Harding, Thomas Hengelbrock, Frans Brüggen, and Trevor Pinnock. Attracted to the richness of expression in Baroque music, Daniel Sepec's fascination with Baroque violin has grown over the past years. He regularly acts as concertmaster of the Balthasar-Neumann-Ensemble, a period instrument ensemble, under the baton of Thomas Hengelbrock. As a soloist he has appeared with the Academy of Ancient Music under Christopher Hogwood, the Wiener Akademie under Martin Haselböck and the Orchestre des Champs-Elysées under Philippe Herreweghe. In 2004 Daniel Sepec and his friends Antje Weithaas, Tabea Zimmermann and Jean-Guihen Queyras founded the Arcanto Quartet. The quartet has since performed regularly at Europe's most renowned concert venues and has released recordings of string quartets by Bartók, Brahms, Debussy, Ravel and Dutilleux on Harmonia Mundi France. For his internationally acclaimed recording of Beethoven Sonatas with Andreas Staier, Daniel Sepec used the composer's recovered violin, lent to him by the Beethoven House in Bonn. The duo's newest recording was released in June 2010 and featured Robert Schumann's violin sonatas as well as Schumann's version of the Bach Chaconne. In September 2010, he released a recording of the Rosary Sonatas by Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber with Hille Perl (viola da gamba), Lee Santana (lute), and Michael Behringer (organ) on Coviello Classics. Daniel Sepec has been a professor of violin at the Hochschule für Musik in Basel.
Tabea Zimmermann studied with Ulrich Koch at the Freiburg Musikhochschule and with Sándor Végh at the Salzburg Mozarteum. Between 1982 and 1984, she won competitions in Geneva, Budapest, and Paris. As a soloist, she regularly works with the most distinguished orchestras, from the Berlin Philharmonic and the London Symphony to the Israel Philharmonic and the Orchestre de Paris. She has recorded all the standards of the viola repertoire to great acclaim. A devoted performer of contemporary music, she recently premiered Ligeti's Sonata for Solo Viola, a piece dedicated to her, as well as viola concertos by Sally Beamish, Wolfgang Rihm, and Heinz Holliger. Tabea Zimmermann is in high demand as a chamber musician and has worked with such well-known artists as Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Hartmut Höll, Christian Tetzlaff, and the Alban Berg Quartet. Following professorships in Saarbrücken and Frankfurt am Main, she has taught at the Hochschule für Musik "Hanns Eisler" in Berlin since 2002. Tabea Zimmermann is married to conductor Steven Sloane and has three children.
Jean-Guihen Queyras's recordings for Harmonia Mundi, from Haydn's concertos on period instruments, to Dvorak's cello concerto with the Prague Philharmonia under Jiří Bĕlohlávek, to the beautiful Arpeggione with pianist Alexandre Tharaud, have been lauded unanimously by the international press. Queyras's recording of Britten's solo suites has been noted as the go-to recording of the work by Gramophone and BBC Music Magazine. His recordings of Bach's complete solo suites and of a collection of pieces by Debussy and Poulenc were both awarded the Diapason d'Or de l'Année. A former soloist of Pierre Boulez's Ensemble Intercontemporain, Jean-Guihen Queyras regularly gives world premieres, and also recorded a CD of concertos by Mantovani, Schoeller, and Amy. Jean-Guihen Queyras performs extensively with internationally renowned orchestras and is regularly invited to participate in concert series all over the world, for example in Carmegie Hall for Leif Ove Andsnes's chamber music series (2005), in the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam with Jean-Guihen and friends (2007), and in Gent at the the Bijloke Muziekcentrum (2008/2009). In November, 2002, Jean-Guihen Queyras was awarded the City of Toronto Glenn Gould International Protégé Prize. In 2008, he was named Instrumental Soloist of the Year by Victoires de la Musique Classique, as well as Artist of the Year as voted by readers of the magazine Diapason. Queyras plays on a Gioffredo Cappa cello from 1696, lent to him by the Mécénat Musical Société Générale.
Daniel Sepec, violin
Tabea Zimmermann, viola
Jean-Guihen Queyras, cello
"The Arcanto Quartet is one of the most stimulating and enjoyable ensembles to listen to, no matter what it is playing. Freshness, close rapport, finesse, and a blend of eloquence and vitality have been hallmarks of its style ever since its debut." (Telegraph)
Antje Weithaas, Daniel Sepec, Tabea Zimmermann, and Jean-Guihen Queyras founded the Arcanto Quartet in 2002 after several years of playing chamber music together in various combinations. The four musical soulmates, who also share a close personal friendship, quickly took the chamber music world by storm with their spirited playing, fuelled by the joy of bringing music to life.
The Arcanto Quartet's highly successful concert debut took place in June of 2004, in Stuttgart. Since then, the quartet has performed all over the world, for example at New York's Carnegie Hall, the Vancouver Recital Series, the Gulbenkian Foudnation in Lisbon, the Palau de la Música in Barcelona, the Philharmonie Köln and the Vienna Konzerthaus as well as at the Rheingau Music Festival, Kunstfest Weimar, and festivals in Helsinki, Edinburgh and Montreux. Following the success of its first two CDs, which feature quartets by Bartok and Brahms as well as Brahms's Piano Quintet op. 34 with Silke Avenhaus, the Arcanto Quartet released its third CD for Harmonia Mundi with works by Ravel, Dutilleux and Debussy in the autumn of 2010.
After touring Israel in 2008, Japan in 2009 and North America in 2010, the Arcanto Quartet will return to Japan in January 2012. The quartet will also return to Wigmore Hall, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam and the Auditorio Nacional de Musica in Madrid in the 2011/12 season, as well as make debuts at the Prinzregententheater in Munich, the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden and the Cité de la Musique in Paris.
One can hardly imagine a better advocate for music than Antje Weithaas. For Antje Weithaas, not only does music itself take the fore but also its conveyance to the public. As one of the most sought-after soloists and chamber musicians of her generation, Weithaas has a wide-ranging repertoire that includes the great concertos by Mozart, Beethoven, and Schumann, modern classics by Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Ligeti and Gubaidulina, and lesser performed concertos by Korngold, Hartmann, and Schoeck. Antje Weithaas has played with Germany's leading orchestras, including the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Bamberger Symphoniker, and the major German radio orchestras. She has also played with numerous internationally renowned symphonies such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Philharmonia Orchestra, BBC Symphony, and the leading orchestras of the Netherlands, Scandinavia, and Asia. She has worked with illustrious conductors Vladimir Ashkenazy, Sir Neville Marriner, Sakari Oramo, Thomas Dausgaard, Andrej Boreyko, and Christian Zacharias. Antje Weithaas is particularly active in the field of chamber music and has collaborated with Lars Vogt, Christian Tetzlaff, and Sharon Kam, among others. She has been a professor of violin at the Hochschule für Musik "Hanns Eisler" Berlin since 2004.
Daniel Sepec studied with Dieter Vorholz in Frankfurt and Gerhard Schulz in Vienna. Since 1993, Daniel Sepec has been concertmaster of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, and he regularly solos with the orchestra under conductors such as Daniel Harding, Thomas Hengelbrock, Frans Brüggen, and Trevor Pinnock. Attracted to the richness of expression in Baroque music, Daniel Sepec's fascination with Baroque violin has grown over the past years. He regularly acts as concertmaster of the Balthasar-Neumann-Ensemble, a period instrument ensemble, under the baton of Thomas Hengelbrock. As a soloist he has appeared with the Academy of Ancient Music under Christopher Hogwood, the Wiener Akademie under Martin Haselböck and the Orchestre des Champs-Elysées under Philippe Herreweghe. In 2004 Daniel Sepec and his friends Antje Weithaas, Tabea Zimmermann and Jean-Guihen Queyras founded the Arcanto Quartet. The quartet has since performed regularly at Europe's most renowned concert venues and has released recordings of string quartets by Bartók, Brahms, Debussy, Ravel and Dutilleux on Harmonia Mundi France. For his internationally acclaimed recording of Beethoven Sonatas with Andreas Staier, Daniel Sepec used the composer's recovered violin, lent to him by the Beethoven House in Bonn. The duo's newest recording was released in June 2010 and featured Robert Schumann's violin sonatas as well as Schumann's version of the Bach Chaconne. In September 2010, he released a recording of the Rosary Sonatas by Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber with Hille Perl (viola da gamba), Lee Santana (lute), and Michael Behringer (organ) on Coviello Classics. Daniel Sepec has been a professor of violin at the Hochschule für Musik in Basel.
Tabea Zimmermann studied with Ulrich Koch at the Freiburg Musikhochschule and with Sándor Végh at the Salzburg Mozarteum. Between 1982 and 1984, she won competitions in Geneva, Budapest, and Paris. As a soloist, she regularly works with the most distinguished orchestras, from the Berlin Philharmonic and the London Symphony to the Israel Philharmonic and the Orchestre de Paris. She has recorded all the standards of the viola repertoire to great acclaim. A devoted performer of contemporary music, she recently premiered Ligeti's Sonata for Solo Viola, a piece dedicated to her, as well as viola concertos by Sally Beamish, Wolfgang Rihm, and Heinz Holliger. Tabea Zimmermann is in high demand as a chamber musician and has worked with such well-known artists as Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Hartmut Höll, Christian Tetzlaff, and the Alban Berg Quartet. Following professorships in Saarbrücken and Frankfurt am Main, she has taught at the Hochschule für Musik "Hanns Eisler" in Berlin since 2002. Tabea Zimmermann is married to conductor Steven Sloane and has three children.
Jean-Guihen Queyras's recordings for Harmonia Mundi, from Haydn's concertos on period instruments, to Dvorak's cello concerto with the Prague Philharmonia under Jiří Bĕlohlávek, to the beautiful Arpeggione with pianist Alexandre Tharaud, have been lauded unanimously by the international press. Queyras's recording of Britten's solo suites has been noted as the go-to recording of the work by Gramophone and BBC Music Magazine. His recordings of Bach's complete solo suites and of a collection of pieces by Debussy and Poulenc were both awarded the Diapason d'Or de l'Année. A former soloist of Pierre Boulez's Ensemble Intercontemporain, Jean-Guihen Queyras regularly gives world premieres, and also recorded a CD of concertos by Mantovani, Schoeller, and Amy. Jean-Guihen Queyras performs extensively with internationally renowned orchestras and is regularly invited to participate in concert series all over the world, for example in Carmegie Hall for Leif Ove Andsnes's chamber music series (2005), in the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam with Jean-Guihen and friends (2007), and in Gent at the the Bijloke Muziekcentrum (2008/2009). In November, 2002, Jean-Guihen Queyras was awarded the City of Toronto Glenn Gould International Protégé Prize. In 2008, he was named Instrumental Soloist of the Year by Victoires de la Musique Classique, as well as Artist of the Year as voted by readers of the magazine Diapason. Queyras plays on a Gioffredo Cappa cello from 1696, lent to him by the Mécénat Musical Société Générale.
General Management
Photo: Marco Borggreve
Photo: Marco Borggreve
Photo: Marco Borggreve