Ébène String Quartet

The Ebene Quartet is amongst the most sought after quartets worldwide. In 2009, the quartet will take part, among other prestigious engagements, in a Haydn cycle at London’s Wigmore Hall. They will also celebrate the Haydn year at Brussel’s Palais des Beaux-Arts and will be given a Residency at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris the same season. They are also due to perform in the near future in such other venues as Carnegie Hall, the Library of Congress, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, and are invited back in venues like Zurich’s Tonhalle, Vienna’s Konzerthaus, Verbier festival, Frankfurt Alte Oper. They obtained a Wigmore Hall residency in London in the 2010-2011 season.

In 2007, the quartet joined the prestigious circle of artists supported by the Borletti-Buitoni Trust. In June 2006, Quatuor Ebène was admitted to the BBC New Generation Artists Scheme. In 2004, the quartet waltzed off with the First Prize of the prestigious ARD Competition in Munich in 2004, as well as the Audience Prize, two Prizes for the best interpretation and the Karl Klinger Foundation Prize. The Quatuor Ebène are also recipients of both the Fondation Groupe Banque Populaire award and more recently the Belmont Prize for Contemporary Music by the Forberg-Schneider Foundation.

Chamber music partners include internationally-renowned musicians such as Michel Dalberto, Frank Braley, Elisabeth Leonskaja, Nicholas Angelich, Renaud Capuçon, Gary Hoffman, Michel Portal, Eric Le Sage, Paul Meyer, Juliane Banse, the Lindsay Quartet ...

The Ebene Quartet is distinguished by its open-mindedness and versatility. Displaying equal facility in the classical repertoire and contemporary music, the quartet also performs jazz concerts.

The Ebene Quartet has recorded a live Haydn CD (Mirare, Harmonia Mundi) which was released in February 2006. The CD was unanimously praised worldwide (Album of the Month in The Strad) and Bartok CD in March 2007 which was also acclaimed. They just signed an exclusivity contract with Virgin Classics-EMI and their a French repertoire CD (Debussy-Fauré Ravel ) was released in September 2008. The Times wrote about this CD: “Three masterpieces played by young musicians with a rare degree of expressive subtlety, blended sonorities and electrifying joy”. The CD is Gramophone’s Editor’s choice, Sunday Times’ CD of the week and Choc of “Le Monde de la Musique.”

Their New Orleans Friends of Music Repertoire is:

Mozart: Quartet in D-Minor, K421
Borodin: Quartet No. 2 in D-Major
--Intermission--
Jazz and Pop Standards, reimagined by the Ebene String Quartet
Footprints--Wayne Shorter
Natureboy--Eden Ahbez
Miserlou (from "Pulp Fiction")--Milton Leeds, Fred Wise, N. Roubanis, S.K. Russell
Unrequieted--Brad Mehldau
Libertango--Astor Piazzola
All Blues & So What--Miles Davis