Signum Quartett

The Signum Quartett has earned recognition through its interpretations of both established classics and new compositions, with frequent appearances on German and British airwaves. Formed in 1994 and headquartered in Cologne, the ensemble—sometimes referred to simply as the Signum Quartet—has consisted since 2016 of violinists Florian Donderer and Annette Walther, violist Xandi van Dijk, and cellist Thomas Schmitz. Its members received rigorous preparation from the Alban Berg, Artemis, and Melos Quartets, along with ensemble instruction from pianists Alfred Brendel and Leon Fleisher, clarinetist and composer Jörg Widmann, and additional mentors. The group secured awards at the Deutscher Musikwettbewerb in 2004 and the International Chamber Music Competition in Hamburg in 2009, and held the title of BBC New Generation Artist from 2011 through 2013. Performances have taken place at leading European sites such as the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Berlin’s Philharmonie, and Bonn’s Beethoven-Haus, with a scheduled first appearance at New York’s Carnegie Hall in 2021. Among its regular chamber-music collaborators are pianists Elisabeth Leonskaja and Alexander Krichel together with cellist Leonard Elschenbroich. Festival engagements have included the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Rheingau Music Festival, and the BBC Proms, while broadcasts have reached listeners via ORF in France, Deutschlandfunk, and the BBC. The quartet entered the recording catalog in 2010 on Capriccio with an album devoted to string quartets by Romantic composer Ludwig Thuille. Its programs and discs encompass both core repertoire and contemporary works. In 2018 the ensemble transferred to PentaTone Classics for Schubert: Aus der Ferne, which presented the composer’s songs in quartet arrangements, and in 2020 it appeared on the album Lost Prayers of composer Erkki-Sven Tüür.