Opus13 receives the £10,000 first prize as well as five additional special prizes
The final round of the triennial Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition concluded on 6 April in London, UK.
Opus13, a quartet based in Oslo, Norway, received the first prize of £10,000. It was also awarded five special prizes, including £1,000 for the best performance of a Haydn quartet in the preliminary round, £1,000 for the best performance of a Mozart quartet in the preliminary round, £1,400 for the best performance of 19th-century repertoire in the semi-final round, the Esterházy Foundation Prize, and the Leeds International Concert Season Prize.
The Terra Quartet won the second prize of £6,000 and the Britten Pears Young Artist Programme Prize, while Quartet Integra received the third prize of £3,000 and the £1,000 Sidney Griller Award for the best performance of Judith Weir’s String Quartet no.2 in the preliminary round.
The Jeunesses Musicales Deutschland Prize and the £1,000 City of Portsmouth prize for the for the most promising quartet not progressing to the final round were awarded to the Viatores Quartet, while the ProQuartet professional development prize went to the Katarina Quartet.
Opus13 consists of Norwegian violinists Sonoko Miriam Welde and Edvard Erdal, Swedish violist Albin Uusijärvi, and Swedish cellist Daniel Thorell. The quartet won second prize in the 2022 Banff International String Quartet Competition as well as the Norwegian Equinor Classical Music Award in 2023. It has performed alongside renowned musicians including Alisa Weilerstein, Janine Jansen and Tabea Zimmermann at venues across the globe. Its members are also the founders and artistic directors of the Vinterspill på Lillehammer chamber music festival.
This year’s jury comprised cellists Peter Jarůšek and Nina Lee, violinist Heime Müller, violists Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt and Lesley Robertson, and violinist Mark Steinberg with Wigmore Hall director John Gilhooly CBE as chairman of the jury.
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