Ezgi Su Apaydin, violin
Laura Muskare, violin
Patricia Gómez Carretero, viola
Anastasia Averianova, cello
The Velvet Quartet, founded in Essen in 2020, is a young ensemble of talented and committed female musicians. The members of the quartet come from different parts of the world – from Turkey/Bulgaria, Latvia and Spain (Barcelona) – and eventually ended up in Essen, where they still live today.
Since then they have been coached by world-renowned chamber music teachers such as the Ebene Quartet, Harald Schoneweg, Alfred Brendel, Bruno Giuranna, Andreas Reiner, Barbara Maurer, Thomas Hoppe, Jan Bjøranger, Adrian Brendel and others.
Currently, the Velvet Quartet is enrolled in the Master’s programme in chamber music with Professor Andreas Reiner at the University of the Arts in Folkwang. The quartet plays on four instruments made by Stefan-Peter Greiner, generously provided by the Folkwang University of the Arts Foundation.
Last season, they had the opportunity to perform at the 10th Biennale de Quatuors à cordes de la Philharmonie de Paris and were awarded the 1st prize in the Köhler-Osbahr Chamber Music Competition as well as the 3rd prize in the International Zukunfstklang Award.
After a successful audition, the Velvet Quartet has also been chosen for the 2022/23 season as a member of the Werner Richard- Dr. Carl Dörken Scholarship for Young Musicians, which organises concert series in the North Rhine-Westphalia region as part of its Best of NRW project.
They recently won an audition organised by WDR3, which offers young emerging ensembles the opportunity to perform live on German radio.
In addition to actively engaging with the classical string quartet repertoire, the musicians have worked on many different musical concepts from the beginning, such as performing pieces by living composers, female composers, creating interdisciplinary projects and, in parallel, learning the classical and traditional string quartet discipline.
