Quatuor Van Kuijk

France's Quatuor Van Kuijk scored major honors and found places in prestigious artist development programs during its first decade. The group has recorded several albums for the Alpha label, focusing on quartets of the Classical and early Romantic periods. The Quatuor Van Kuijk was formed in Paris in 2012. In anglophone contexts, both the original name and Van Kuijk Quartet have been used. In either case, the members are French and not Dutch, and the "V" in "Van" is capitalized. The quartet takes its name from that of first violinist Nicolas Van Kuijk; he is joined by second violinist Sylvain Favre-Bulle, violist Emmanuel François, and cellist Anthony Kondo. The group had its initial lessons from the Ysaÿe Quartet and went on to study with Günter Pichler at the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofia in Madrid, and then to a student residency at the ProQuartet chamber music center in Paris, where they studied with members of the Alban Berg, Artemis, and Hagen Quartets. In 2015, the quartet won first prize as well as Best Beethoven and Best Haydn Prizes at the 2015 Wigmore Hall International String Quartet competition and took several other international prizes. Signed to the Alpha label, the Quatuor Van Kuijk released its debut album, Mozart, in 2016. The Quatuor Van Kuijk has performed at many of the top chamber music venues in Europe and the U.S., including Wigmore Hall in London, Carnegie Hall in New York, and the Konzerthaus and Musikverein in Vienna, as well as major Parisian venues. The group's professional development has continued with designation as BBC New Generation Artists from 2015 to 2017 and as ECHO Rising Stars for the 2017-2018 season. The Quatuor Van Kuijk has issued an album annually on Alpha, except for the year 2021; after a 2017 release devoted to Debussy, Ravel, and Chausson, the group has focused on music from Mozart to Mendelssohn, issuing a complete traversal of quartets by the latter on a pair of albums in 2022 and 2023. ~ James Manheim, Rovi