Masterclass with Vision String Quartet | Sydney

Founded in 2012, the Vision String Quartet has already established itself as one of the finest young string quartets of its generation. With a unique versatility that focuses on the classical string quartet repertoire alongside their own compositions of other disparate genres such as folk, pop, rock, funk, and minimalist music, the four young musicians from Berlin identify as much as a ‘band’ as a ‘string quartet’ and are on a mission to re-address, with integrity, how classical music is presented and perceived by both new and traditional audiences.

The quartet experiments with concert formats that challenge perceived expectations while staying true to their vision of the music. Performances have included Schubert's Death and the Maiden Quartet performed in complete darkness, Beethoven's Quartet in A minor Op. 132 played from memory, and experiments with lighting designers to add further creative dimensions to their performances. Breaking new ground, they have brought these ideas to leading classical concert halls such as the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Berlin Philharmonic, Gewandhaus Leipzig, Oji Hall Tokyo, Philharmonie Luxembourg, and London’s Wigmore Hall. Festival appearances include the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Rheingau Music Festival, Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Trondheim Chamber Music Festival, and the Lucerne Festival.

As exclusive recording artists with Warner Classics, the Vision String Quartet recently released their album "Spectrum," featuring music entirely composed and produced by the quartet. They also created accompanying music videos, which they directed, produced, and curated themselves. In 2020, their debut album "Memento" received an Opus Klassik Award for best chamber music recording. The quartet has achieved many other notable prizes in international competitions, such as the 2016 Felix-Mendelssohn-Bartholdy Competition in Berlin and the 2016 International Concours de Genève. Testament to their charisma as well as their musicianship, they not only received First Prize in both of these but also all the audience and special prizes. The Ritter Prize from the Oscar and Vera Ritter Foundation followed in 2021, as well as the Jürgen Ponto Foundation's Chamber Music Prize (2018) and the Würth Prize (2016).

Recent highlights have included tours to both the USA and Japan, with performances in New York, Toronto, Chicago, Tokyo, and Kyoto. Highlights of the 21/22 season include European appearances in Germany, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, Bulgaria, and Norway, as well as the world premiere of a concerto for string quartet and orchestra entitled "Technologia" by Thorsten Encke with the Konzerthausorchester Berlin. In 22/23, they will be Artists in Residence at the Beethovenfest in Bonn and the Bodensee Festival at Lake Constance, and they will tour Japan, Korea, Mexico, and South America.

The Quartet completed their chamber music studies with the Artemis Quartet at the University of the Arts in Berlin and with Günter Pichler of the Alban Berg Quartet at the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía in Madrid. In addition, they have received tuition from teachers such as Heime Müller, Eberhardt Feltz, and Gerhard Schulz, as well as participating in masterclasses at the Jeunesses Musicales, ProQuartet in France, and the Foundation Villa Musica Rheinland-Pfalz, where they were scholarship holders.

The Vision String Quartet performs with kind support from the Deutschen Musikrat and is excitedly endorsed by Thomastik-Infeld strings.

We would like to thank the following members of our Masterclass Giving Circle, whose collective support will enable the artistic development of the next generation of Australian chamber musicians: Nicholas Callinan AO & Elizabeth Callinan, Caroline & Robert Clemente, Ian Frazer AM & Caroline Frazer, Patricia H Reid Endowment Fund, Andrew Sisson AO & Tracey Sisson, Mick and Margaret Toller, Anonymous (2).