Auner Quartet
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Full biography
Daniel Auner, Violin
Barbara de Menezes Galante Auner, Violin
Nora Romanoff-Schwarzberg, Viola
Konstantin Zelenin, Violoncello

Winner of the Eugéne Ysaÿe Competition in Liége, Belgium and currently with the words "Auner Quartett - The award winning string quartet: a perfect musical match" as the first Austrian ensemble on the cover of the Performing Arts Yearbook of Europe, the Vienna-based string quartet has now firmly established itself in the international music scene.

A commission of the Austrian Foreign Ministry appointed the ensemble as cultural ambassadors of Austria within the framework of the NASOM series - an inclusion in an international network of cultural forums and embassies in which the quartet now regularly performs.

Praised for its "stylistic assurance and readiness for emotion ... for all four, chamber music is the essence of the musical per se ..." (Radio Ö1, "Intrada"), the ensemble today demonstrates to its listeners "refinement, quality and musical sophistication" through all musical epochs. Following the old Viennese tradition of salon concerts, the ensemble has been performing its own string quartet cycle in Vienna since eight years (2013), where it regularly presents a varied repertoire in partnership with "Radio Klassik Stephansdom". Since the 2021/22 season, the cycle has taken place in the chapel of the Vienna Hofburg.

Further frequent appearances in Vienna include Brahms Hall of Vienna Musikverein, Schubert Hall of Vienna Konzerthaus, Arnold Schönberg Center, Baroque Hall of the Vienna City Hall and Ehrbar Hall, among others.

As enthusiastic chamber musicians, the artists strive not only to explore the immense string quartet repertoire for neglected gems, but also to convey an absolutely necessary rhetorical sound language, especially in the music of the First Viennese School (Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, etc.). Having studied chamber music with Prof. Johannes Meissl (Artis Quartett) at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, his former students Barbara, Daniel, Nora and Konstantin have gone through a common education as individual musicians, focusing on the Viennese sound as well as a cultivated interpretation of works from the "Viennese Classic". The rich musical heritage of their respective homelands as well as their emotional approach to music thus flow into a musical melting pot; but by all the rules of the art. Impulses from master classes with Hatto Beyerle and Günter Pichler (Alban Berg Quartet), Petr Prause (Talich Quartet), Alasdair Tait (Belcea Quartet), Patrick Jüdt, Geoffrey Nuttall and Lesley Robertson (St. Lawrence String Quartet, USA), among others, round off their joint training. The quartet is an ensemble of the ECMA, European Chamber Music Academy.

The Auner Quartet, comprised of violinists Daniel and Barbara Auner, violist Nora Romanoff-Schwarzberg and cellist Konstantin Zelenin, performs regularly at a variety of festivals and concert halls, and has recently appeared at the Chamber Music Hall of the Graz Congress (Ö1 Musiksalon), Festival Allegro Vivo, Pölzhalle Amstetten (AT); Moers Festival and the ÖKF Berlin (DE); Schubertiade Sion (Switzerland); Ravenna Festival, Festival Interationale di Quartetto di Fiesole, Hofburg Brixen Bressanone (Italy); Fundação Oscar Americano, Universität von São Paulo, Teatro Claudio Santoro (Brazil); Fadjr Festival (Iran); the Yarmouk Cultural Centre (Kuwait); Polotsk Easter Festival (Belarus), Salonkonzerte Bratislava (SK); Cartagena Music Festival (Colombia) and many others.

The quartet has been repeatedly seen and heard live on TV (ORF, GLOBO, RTV) as well as in numerous radio productions (ORF Ö1 and Radio Klassik - Austria, TRT - Turkey, Radio Cultura - Brazil).

As strong advocates of music education projects and youth workshops of a musically educational nature, the Auner Quartet constantly seeks opportunities to connect with the next generations. As a member of the Rhapsody in School programme, which was founded on an idea of the late Lars Vogt, the ensemble plays in schools to facilitate what is often the first exposure to classical music for young audiences in a completely non-judgmental way. Social projects, often in cooperation with the Austrian Foreign Ministry, such as workshops for youth orchestras or concerts in support of social projects have already taken the musicians to Peru, Brazil, Mexico, Belize and South Africa.

The album of clarinet quintets by Mozart, Reger and Leitner with the Tyrolean clarinettist Simon Reitmeier was highly praised by the specialist press and was released by "Gramola" in February 2018. A portrait CD of the chamber music works of Austrian composer Johanna Doderer was released by "Capriccio" in 2019 and the new recording of the string quartets by Egon Wellesz, Alexander von Zemlinsky and Anton von Webern, commissioned by the Austrian National Bank, was released in spring 2021.

The Auner Quartet is supported in Vienna by the string manufacturer Thomastik Infeld. The ensemble's primarius, Daniel Auner, plays on a violin by Giovanni Battista Guadagnini (1751-1753) on loan from the Austrian National Bank's collection of valuable string instruments.

2022/2023

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