Pacific Quartet Vienna

Their passion for the supreme discipline of chamber music, the string quartet, was what inspired the four musicians to found the multinational, now internationally acknowledged Pacific Quartet Vienna, which is at home both in Vienna and in Zurich. With their sensitive warm sound the quartet has been delighting an expanding global audience ever since.

The quartet’s work is focussed on a number of fields. They regularly put together concert programmes tailor-made for instance for museums, in which the main focus is on contemporary music. Since establishing the quartet, the musicians have intensively studied the interpretation of works from the Viennese Classical period, and been involved in intercultural exchange projects in Europe (Switzerland/Austria) and Asia (Japan/Taiwan). Extended tours have taken the ensemble to many countries and cultures. The quartet has also produced a unique fairytale concert programme introducing children and adults to the sounds, languages and philosophies of various cultural regions.

Highlights of recent concert seasons include performances at the Musikverein (Vienna), the Wigmore Hall (London) and in the Bruckner House in Linz, as well as appearances at famous festivals such as the Styriarte (Graz), Trame Sonore Mantova Chamber Music Festival, the Haydn Festival Burgenland, dem Kalkalpen Festival in Tirol and the Lucerne Festival. The quartet has released several CDs and made radio recordings with the Austrian Gramola label, the Austrian broadcaster ORF and Swiss Radio and Television SRF, as well as undertaking various successful tours in Italy, Japan and Taiwan.

In 2015 the Pacific Quartet Vienna won first prize, the audience prize and the prize for the best interpretation of a work by Joseph Haydn at the 6th International Joseph Haydn Chamber Music Competition in Vienna. Furthermore in 2016 the quartet won the August Pickhardt Prize of the City of Basel and in 2017 the New Austrian Sound of Music Prize 2018/19.