Esmé Quartet

Biography

Wonhee Bae, violin
Yuna Ha, violin
Jiwon Kim, viola
Yeeun Heo, cello

Formed in 2016, the Esmé Quartet has rapidly gained a reputation as an ensemble of exceptional achievement and promise. In Spring 2018 the quartet won first prize and four special prizes (Alan Bradley Mozart-Prize, Bram Eldering Beethoven-Prize, the ProQuartet Prize and Prize of the Esterházy Foundation) at the prestigious Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition in London, and in Autumn 2018 the quartet was named HSBC Laureate of the Académie du Festival d’Aix. This recognition follows prizes at the Trondheim International Chamber Music Competition 2017, Irene-Steels Wilsing String Quartet Competition 2018 and the 55th Possehl Musikpreis Lübeck 2018.

Praised for their warm sound and powerful stage presence, the Esmé Quartet was formed at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz in Cologne, Germany by four Korean musicians who were long-time friends. They shared common interests and passions in music, the arts, and life. After working together as a quartet in a short period, they were soon awarded the first prize at the annual Hochschule Köln's Chamber Music Competition. Since then, the members decided to work together on a permanent basis, and devote their energy and passion into transforming their musical and interpretive goals into a working reality. The Esmé Quartet brings together four distinct musical personalities with a shared background forming a cohesive, close-knit unit, passionately dedicated to the string quartet repertoire. The ensemble takes its name from an Old French word meaning “loved” or “esteemed.”

The Esmé Quartet has appeared at St. Martin-in-the-Fields in London, the Flagey Musiq3 Festival in Brussels, and was resident quartet at the 2018 Aix-en-Provence festival, the 2018 McGill International String Quartet Academy in Montreal and 2019 Classic Esterházy in Eisenstadt, Austria. Other engagements during the 2018-19 season, also include debuts at the Lotte Concert Hall Seoul and at the Lucerne Festival, a tour of Italy, and performances at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence and the Brahms Festival in Lübeck, Germany. In 2017, the quartet participated in the ProQuartet Academy in Roussillon, France and Jeunesses Musicales International Chamber Music Campus in Weikersheim where they were awarded the special prize of a residency at the 2019 Heidelberger Streichquartettfest.

As winner of the Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition, the Esmé Quartet will appear at Wigmore Hall and tour the UK in October 2019. They will also make a recording for the British CD label Champs Hills Records to be released in Fall 2019.

The German-based Korean quartet has been mentored by artists such as Günter Pichler of the Alban Berg Quartet, Eberhard Feltz, Andraś Keller, Christoph Poppen and Jonathan Brown of the Cuarteto Casals. They continue to work with Heime Müller, former violinist of the Artemis Quartet in Lübeck, Germany.

May 2019. Please discard any previously dated materials.