“The Barbican Quartet love to take risks in their playing and are not afraid to push boundaries. [...] Founded in 2014, the quartet has a distinctive style: with their very own sound, their emotional interpretations, but also in their programming.”
BARBICAN QUARTET
Amarins Wierdsma, violin
Kate Maloney, violin
Christoph Slenczka, viola
Yoanna Prodanova, cello
The Barbican Quartet is an original voice on the international chamber music scene. Praised for their unique sound and character, as well as for intensely personal, intelligent performances that “cannot leave you cold”, the Barbican Quartet celebrates the individual strengths of its members and forges them into a homogenous entity, exploring with fervour the vast string quartet repertoire, from Renaissance to the music of today.
The 2026/2027 season will see the Barbican Quartet embark on their first tour in South Korea, as well as debuts in Vienna's Musikverein and the legendary Schubertiade Schwarzenberg. The quartet's dynamic performance schedule includes invitations to Rheingau Festival, Montreal Chamber Music Festival, Peasmarsh Festival and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern among many others. They have performed in Konzerthaus Berlin, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Wigmore Hall, Alte Oper Frankfurt and Kings Place, London. Dedicated to the creation of new music, they have commissioned new works by Benjamin Graves, Joy Lisney and Sophia Jani.
In September 2022, the Barbican Quartet was awarded first prize and four special prizes at the 71st ARD International String Quartet Competition, including the award for Best Performance of The Ear of Grain by Dobrinka Tabakova.
Barbican's Quartet's latest album, Lux Intus, was released in 2026 on the Berlin Classics label. BR Klassik praises their ability to “coverse most genially”, and Suono magazine finds a “contemplative dimension of rare beauty” in Sophia Jani's Postlude, and calls the album “destined to cement the Barbican Quartet's status as one of the most compelling chamber ensembles of the new generation”.
Barbican Quartet’s debut album, “Manifesto on Love” was released in 2024 on the Genuin Classics label. BR Klassik lauded their playing in this recording as “tonally balanced and perfectly coordinated”, while Pizzicato Classical Music Journal awarded the CD its Supersonic Award and praised their “exhilarating, sometimes even a little boiling interpretations that cannot leave you cold”. The CD was also featured as album of the week on BR Klassik and NDR Kultur.
The Quartet were awarded the Nina Drucker Fellowship at the Royal Academy of Music in London where they taught chamber music between 2023 and 2025, and have given masterclasses in Germany, Belgium and the UK.
Instruments:
Amarins is very grateful to the Dutch Musical Instrument Foundation for their support. Kate plays a violin by Francesco Ruggieri (Cremona, 1685) on loan from the Canadian Canimex Group, Christoph plays a 2010 Bernd Hiller viola and Yoanna’s cello is a 1782 Giovanni Gagliano, also on loan from Canimex.
~ biography for website use only. For the full, official biography please see the links attached ~
