Dudok Quartet Amsterdam - Biography

Judith van Driel violin
Marleen Wester violin
Marie-Louise de Jong viola
David Faber cello

‘Sharing the heart of music is our motto and we live and breathe old and new music in both our performance and on record ‘ says Dudok Quartet Amsterdam.

The quartet studied with the Alban Berg Quartet in Cologne and subsequently, for two years, at the Dutch String Quartet Academy with Marc Danel of Quatuor Danel, graduating with highest distinction in 2013. Between 2011 and 2013, the quartet was awarded the top prizes in international string quartet competitions such as Quatuors à Bordeaux and Joseph Joachim Weimar. In 2014, the quartet received the Kersjes Prize, an award of €50.000 offered to a chamber music group of exceptional talent. Its first CD, Metamorphoses, was named Editor’s Choice in The Gramophone, and the second, Labyrinth, met with similar acclaim, including a five-star review in BBC Music Magazine. The third CD is scheduled for release in June 2018.

Recent highlights include the ensemble’s USA debut (January 2018), the world premiere of Kaija Saariaho’s opera Only the Sound Remains with Philippe Jaroussky and the Dutch National Opera and the quartet’s debut at the Vienna Konzerthaus. In October 2017, the quartet premiered an adaptation of Beethoven’s Op 132 String Quartet, re-imagined specifically for children over six.

Dudok Quartet Amsterdam is a regular guest in both the Concertgebouw and the Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam and has performed in venues all over Europe.

When we first heard that we would be receiving the BBT Award in 2018, we just couldn’t believe our ears! Becoming part of the BBT family, with all its musicians we greatly admire, feels like a dream coming 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. Next to that, BBT has put us in touch with our amazing general management and many other key figures in their network. 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!

Photographs by Feiko Koster / Marco Borggreve