Esmé Quartet

Welcome to the brilliant Esmé Quartet, the award-winning young string quartet waking up the world with their exciting and insightful performances of much-loved masterworks.

Eloquent. Spellbinding. Monumental. Exquisite. How else can we describe the Esmé Quartet? Based in Germany, this ensemble launched its international career by winning first prize at the 2018 International String Quartet Competition at London’s Wigmore Hall. The ensemble then embarked on a whirlwind year of concerts in North America, Hong Kong and Japan.

For their Australian debut the musicians play works which are the epitome of youth: an early work of Webern overflows with romantic invention, while Mendelssohn’s second String Quartet blazes with the heart-on-sleeve emotion of a teenage genius, and emerging Australian composer Jack Frerer’s Spiral Sequences is an exhilarating roller-coaster ride. Add to this Claude Debussy’s only string quartet, brimming with rhythmic and harmonic exuberance.

Esmé comes from the medieval French word for ‘beloved’. Be among the first to discover why everyone loves Esmé.

REVIEWS "The lyricism and airy limpidity of the four performers give these movements a profundity and unexpected allure. " — Diapason "The quartet has such tenderness, such virtuosity, such musicality that I have tried to keep them as a strictly traditional offering – except that I’ve asked them to include a piece by Australian composer Jack Frerer, which is fast, furious and then gentle, a wonderful way for the quartet to engage with Australian music and audiences. " — Paul Kildea