Quartet Berlin-Tokyo - Popov & Schulhoff (2021)

The Quartet Berlin-Tokyo was given its name at the suggestion of the renowned Japanese composer Toshio Hosokawa in the course of an invitation to the Takefu International Music Festival. But there is more to the name than reference to these two metropolises; it is rather about a path running between them – and this is precisely the issue the young artists are engaged with. It is therefore not coincidental that they feel committed to the music of Béla Bartók and his striving for a synthesis between East and West.

The group was founded in 2011 by students of the two conservatories in Berlin. Only a few months later, they celebrated initial success at the International Music Competition of the ARD in Munich 2012 when awarded the prize of the Jeunesses Musicales Germany, followed by the first prize and an Audience Award at the Orlando International String Quartet Competition in 2014.

Other prizes that the Quartet obtained include the second-and-audience prize at the International "Salieri Zinetti" Competition in Verona, second prize of the Young Concert Artists Audition New York, third prize at the “Franz Schubert” competition in Graz, second prize and the ''Best interpretation of Carl Nielsen'' prize at the ''Carl Nielsen International Chamber Music Competition'' in Copenhagen, third prize at the ''International Joseph Joachim Chamber Music Competition'' and the special prize ''Prix Irène Steels-Wilsing'' at the 8th ''Quatuors à Bordeaux'' string quartet competition in France.

The Quartet Berlin-Tokyo has also been supported by several scholarships, including scholarships from the Matsuo Academic Foundation Tokyo and Ottilie Selbach Redslob Foundation, Germany.

In October 2014, the ensemble was awarded a scholarship by the Irene Steels-Wilsing Foundation and in 2015 they became ''HSBC Laureates'' of the ''Aix en Provence'' Festival, France.

The ensemble has performed at numerous national and international concert venues, including the Hamburg Laeiszhalle, the Berlin Philharmonic, and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. In addition, the four young musicians are regularly invited to prestigious festivals such as the ''Aix en Provence'' Festival,

Oslo Chamber Music Festival, the Takefu International Music Festival, Heidelberger Frühling and the Davos Festival in Switzerland, where they also performed the 5-and-a-half-hour long string quartet of Morton Feldman.

They have received musical inspiration and guidance from Oliver Wille, David Alberman, András Keller, Gerhard Schulz, Hartmut Rohde, Johannes Meissl, Jean-Guihen Queyras, Heime Müller, Eberhard Feltz, the Artemis Quartet and the Arditti Quartet.

Since 2014 the Quartet has held a residency position at the new Fukinoto Concert hall of Rokkatei in Sapporo, Japan. During this residency they already produced recordings of all quartets by Béla Bartók and complete op. 76 by Joseph Haydn.