»Their performance of Beethoven’s op. 132, particularly the perfectly sustained and moving slow movement, was one of the most compelling I have ever heard.« – Alfred Brendel
Founded in Frankfurt am Main in 2014, the Eliot Quartet has established itself over the course of its ten-year history as one of the leading ensembles on the international string quartet scene. Awards at international competitions such as the Mozartwettbewerb Salzburg, the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition, the Deutscher Musikwettbewerb and the Karol Szymanowski Competition were followed by concert invitations to major concert halls across Europe, including the Mozarteum in Salzburg, the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, the Alte Oper in Frankfurt, the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn and the Berlin Philharmonie. The quartet has also appeared at the Bachfest Leipzig, the Styriarte Graz, the Mozartfest Würzburg, the Rheingau Musik Festival, the Schubertiade Schwarzenberg and the Musikfest der Berliner Festspiele.
In the 2024/25 season, the Eliot Quartet fulfilled a dream cherished since its inception by performing all of Dmitri Shostakovich’s string quartets as part of its concert cycle »DSCH & beyond« at the Holzhausenschlösschen of the Frankfurt Community Foundation. To mark the 50th anniversary of the great Russian composer’s death, the international ensemble – whose members hail from Russia, Canada and Germany – performed three further Shostakovich cycles at the Carinthian Summer, the Mito Festival in Italy and in Hamilton, Canada.
The Eliot Quartet received its artistic training at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts under Hubert Buchberger and Tim Vogler, and at the Escuela Superior de Música in Madrid in Günter Pichler’s masterclass. The ensemble draws further inspiration from its collaborative work with Alfred Brendel and the Belcea Quartet.
The Eliot Quartet is named after the American writer T. S. Eliot, who drew inspiration from Ludwig van Beethoven’s innovative late string quartets for his last great poetic work, Four Quartets. Several recordings by the Eliot Quartet have been released on the Genuin label.
