Since its founding in 2003, the Austrian Minetti Quartett has made its home in Vienna, steadily conquering a fixed place on the international string quartet scene. Ever since it was nominated for the European Concert Hall Organization ECHO’s “Rising Stars” cycle in 2008/09, the Quartet has made repeated guest appearances in Europe’s most distinguished concert halls in Vienna, Berlin, Cologne, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Stockholm, Paris, Brussels and London, to name just a few. The ensemble is also at home at the continent’s major festivals, including the Schubertiade Schwarzenberg, the Aldeburgh Festival, Salzburg’s Mozart Week, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Rheingau Music Festival, the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence and the Istanbul Music Festival. They are touring the U.S.A since 2005 and have also played in Mexico, Argentina, Australia, Japan and China.

Many of its performances have been recorded and broadcast by international radio stations.

 

Highlights of the 2023/24 season will be the release of a new recording with 20th century’s music, concerts at the renowned Vienna Konzerthaus, the Wigmore Hall London, Philharmonie Luxembourg, at the Schubertiade Schwarzenberg festival and two extended tours with pianist Kit Armstrong, the “Expedition Mozart”.

 

The Minetti Quartett is the winner of numerous international chamber music competitions. It also received the Austrian “Grand Gradus ad Parnassum Prize”, the Start-up Fund of the Austrian Federal Ministry and the Karajan Stipend.

Contemporary composers are dedicating new works to the Minetti quartett and outstanding artists like the pianist and composer Fazil Say often share the stage with its members.

Mentors and supporters of the Minetti Quartett include Johannes Meissl and the members of the Alban Berg Quartett at Vienna’s University of Music, where the quartet was founded 20 years ago. As participants in the European Chamber Music Academy (ECMA), they also received essential artistic impulses from Ferenc Rados, Alfred Brendel and members of the Artemis, Amadeus and Hagen Quartets.

Hänssler Classic has released four highly acclaimed CD recordings of string quartets by Haydn, Mendelssohn, Beethoven and Schubert since 2009; Avi music released a CD of clarinet quintets. The newest CD featuring music by Berg, Ligeti and Shostakovich is supported by the Alban Berg foundation Vienna and Asamer Kies- und Betonwerke G.m.b.H. Ohlsdorf.

The quartet has given and continues to give regular master classes in Finland, Spain, Sweden, Mexico and at American and Austrian universities. Milan Milojicic and Leonhard Roczek also hold teaching positions at Salzburg’s University Mozarteum.

The Minetti Quartett’s name refers to a play by the writer Thomas Bernhard, who lived in Ohlsdorf in the Salzkammergut region, where the two violinists of the quartet grew up. The National Bank of Austria has lent the quartet two violins by G. B. Guadagnini (the “Mantegazza” of 1774 and the “ex Meinel” of 1770-1775) and a cello by G. Tononi (Bologna, 1681). Milan Milojicic plays a viola built by Bernd Hiller in 2009.

The strings are provided by Pirastro.