Artists & projects

Expressive, dynamic, spectacular – the Aris Quartet has been at home on international stages for more than a decade. With its unmistakable sound, it has long been known as one of the world’s top-rank chamber music ensembles. The ensemble’s success is no coincidence: having earned numerous first prizes at prestigious competitions, the Aris Quartet quickly achieved its international breakthrough. The musicians have also been honored as ECHO Rising Stars by the European Concert Hall Organisation, are among the BBC's New Generation Artists, and have won five awards at the ARD International Music Competition in Munich.

After intensely engaging in Mozart‘s string quartet œvre, the Armida Quartet completed the recording of all string quartets by W.A. Mozart in 2022. The CD box set has been be released in February 2023 on the CAvi-music label and is the crowning conclusion to a productive cooperation with the G.Henle Verlag and the quartet-owned concert series Mozart Exploded. In May 2022 the Armida Quartet has been appointed the first ambassador of the "Orchestras of Change" initiative (Orchester des Wandels e.V.).

The three brothers Mark, Erik and Ken Schumann have been playing together since their earliest childhood – meanwhile violist Veit Hertenstein completes the quartet. Those who experience the quartet in performance often remark on the strong connection between its members. The four musicians enjoy the way they communicate without words: how a single look suffices to convey how a particular member wants to play a particular passage. Although the individual personalities clearly manifest themselves, a common space arises in every musical work in a process of spiritual metamorphosis.