Dudok Quartet Amsterdam - About

Becoming part of the BBT family, with all its musicians we greatly admire, is like a dream come true. Winning the award has enabled us to expand the amount of time devoted to delving deep into the treasury of classical music, both newly written and from the past, whilst also providing new and better ways to share our findings with a larger audience. BBT’s financial and artistic support-team encourages us to think adventurously when it comes to programming new music or finding new ways to present classical music’s greatest hits. Because of all this, we are now looking at a very bright future with lots of great music and the tools and platforms to share the heart of music with as many people as possible.

Communication and reinvention are at the core of the Dudok Quartet’s quest to make all music relevant in contemporary society. The ensemble is committed to crafting unique and eclectic live performance and recorded programmes in order to engage with audiences in adventurous and imaginative ways and reveal new connections in music. These include its own arrangements of music not originally intended for string quartet, as well as music of many different styles and eras, from medieval to specially commissioned contemporary work. The Dudoks are regular performers at distinguished concert halls and music festivals (including their own) throughout Europe, the UK and US and have instigated and led a number of music programmes and performances for children in the Netherlands.

The Dudoks maximised their BBT award to support a wide range of projects crucial to their development as one of Europe’s most versatile and creative quartets, including the commissioning of bespoke classical bows from highly regarded bowmaker Luis Emilio Rodriguez Carrington which they used for their two-volume recording of the complete Haydn Opus 20 quartets, supported by BBT on the Resonus label. Two more recordings – the complete Brahms quartets and one of their signature ‘concept’ albums featuring works by Shostakovich and Bacewicz – marked the start of their fruitful relationship with Rubicon Classics. BBT also funded further coaching, new publicity photographs, brought the Dudoks to London for a showcase recital and supported creative workshops in collaboration with composers and fellow musicians to explore possible new projects. Finally, BBT was able to help commission a new work, Three Tributes, written for them by London-born Lebanese composer Bushra El-Turk.

Dudok Quartet Amsterdam was supported with a BBT Award between 2007 and 2012.

For a current biography please visit dudokquartet.com or maestroarts.com

Read the Dudok Quartet Amsterdam’s blogs: Contemplating Commissioning here; Brahms and Freedom here; and These were the quartets that made us fall in love with the genre here

Press Releases: Haydn String Quartets Opus 20 Vol I / Haydn Vol II / Brahms Reinvented / Reflections  – Shostakovich & Bacewicz / Bushra El-Turk Three Tributes

Photographs by Ben McDonnell