The Banff International String Quartet Competition is held once in three years at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in

Banff, Alberta Banff is a town within Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada. It is located in Alberta's Rockies along the Trans-Canada Highway, approximately west of Calgary and east of Lake Louise. At above Banff is the community with the second highest e ...

, Canada.

History

The competition was organized in 1983 by Kenneth Murphy to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the

Banff Centre Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, formerly known as The Banff Centre (and previously The Banff Centre for Continuing Education), located in Banff, Alberta, was established in 1933 as the Banff School of Drama. It was granted full autonomy as ...

for the Arts, at which he was the assistant artistic director for musical programs. It is now recognised as one of the world's major string quartet competitions.

Competition details

Ten quartets from around the world are selected to take part in the semi-final competition. All members of the quartets must be under the age of 35. After playing various styles of both traditional and modern chamber music before audiences over a period of several days, three finalist groups are chosen. After further performances these are judged and a winner chosen. Each year the winning ensemble receives a cash prize and a three-year career development programme, including a recording session at Banff Centre and a performance tour of European and North American cities. There is also a cash prize for second place and smaller specific prizes.

Winners

In 2010, the Cecilia String Quartet of

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

took the top prize in the competition. The winner of the 2013 competition was the

Dover Quartet The Dover Quartet is an American string quartet. It was formed at the Curtis Institute of Music in 2008 and its members are graduates of both the Curtis Institute of Music and the Rice University Shepherd School of Music. Its name is taken from ...

, an American ensemble. In 2016 the winner of the competition was the

Rolston String Quartet Rolston is a hamlet in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, in an area known as Holderness. It is situated approximately south of Hornsea and lies just west of the B1242 road. It forms part of the civil parish In England, a civil pari ...

. In 2019, the First Prize was, for the first time, shared between two groups: the

Marmen Quartet The Marmen Quartet is a string quartet based in the UK, with violinists Johannes Marmen and Laia Valentin Braun, violist Bryony Gibson-Cornish and cellist Sinéad O'Halloran. The quartet was founded in 2013 by Johannes Marmen and Ricky Gore, viol ...

(UK) and the

Viano String Quartet The Viano Quartet is an American string quartet comprising violinists Hao Zhou and Lucy Wang, violist Aiden Kane, and cellist Tate Zawadiuk. Founded in 2015 at the Colburn School in Los Angeles, the quartet has toured extensively and perform ...

(Canada/USA). The Second Prize was awarded to the

Callisto Quartet Callisto most commonly refers to: * Callisto (mythology), a nymph *Callisto (moon), a moon of Jupiter Callisto may also refer to: Art and entertainment *''Callisto series'', a sequence of novels by Lin Carter *''Callisto'', a novel by Torsten Kr ...

(USA).

References

External links

* {{Official website, https://www.banffcentre.ca/bisqc Music competitions in Canada Festivals in Banff, Alberta