Leonkoro Quartet - Biography

Jonathan Schwarz violin
Amelie Wallner violin
Mayu Konoe viola
Lukas Schwarz cello

For the Leonkoro Quartet, founded in 2019 in Berlin, its 2024 BBT Award is the latest in a string of prestigious international prizes and accolades. In 2021 the ensemble was awarded the second prize (in the absence of a first) and coveted Audience Prize at the Premio Paolo Borciani International String Quartet Competition, followed the next year by first prizes and special awards from the Jürgen Ponto Foundation, International String Quartet Competition Wigmore Hall, Concours International de Quatuor à Bordeaux and the MERITO String Quartet Award. The Quartet participates in the current BBC New Generation Artists scheme, and earlier this year received the Young Talent Award of the Concertgebouw Amsterdam. The Quartet’s studies continue with the likes of Heime Müller at the Musikhochschule Lübeck and Günter Pichler at the Albéniz Foundation’s Reina Sofía School of Music in Madrid. Its 2023/24 international performance schedule is packed with debuts including Berlin Philharmonie, Kölner Philharmonie, Concertgebouw Amsterdam and Konzerthaus Wien. The Quartet’s debut album featuring Ravel’s String Quartet and Schumann’s Third Quartet was recently released on the Mirare label.

Photographs by Peter Adamik & Nikolaj Lund