Ezgi Su Apaydin, Violin
Laura Muskare, violin
Patricia Gómez Carretero, viola
Anastasiia Averianova, violoncello
The Velvet Quartet was founded in Essen in 2020 is a young ensemble made of talented and
committed musicians. The members of the ensemble, who come from different parts of the world - from Turkey, Latvia, Spain (Barcelona) and Russia - finally found each other in Essen, where they still live today.
Since then they have been mentored by world-class chamber music professors such as Ebène Quartet, Modigliani Quartet, Harald Schoneweg, Alfred Brendel, Bruno Giuranna, Andreas Reiner, Gregor Sigl,Barbara Maurer, Thomas Hoppe, Jan Bjoranger, Adrian Brendel, among others.
The Velvet Quartet is currently enrolled in the Chamber Music Master’s program with Prof. Andreas Reiner at the Folkwang University of the Arts and plays on four instruments made by Stefan-Peter Greiner, which are a generous loan made available by the Folkwang University of the Arts Foundation.
Last season they had the opportunity to perform at the 10th String Quartet Biennale of the Philharmonie de Paris and received the 1st prize at the Köhler-Osbahr Chamber Music Competition, as well as the 3rd prize at the International Competition "Zukunfstklang Award".
After a successful audition, they have also been chosen for the 2022/23 season as members of the W. Richard- Dr. Dörken Scholarship foundation for young musicians, that organises series of concerts in the region of North- Rhine Westphalia in the frame of its „Best of NRW“ project. In year 2023 they are also selected as one of the four quartets in residence to participate in the Vibre! String Quartet Festival Residency in Bordeaux.
They recently won an audition organized by WDR3, which offers young emerging ensembles the opportunity to give a live concert on the German Radio.
In addition to actively engaging with the classical string quartet repertoire, the quartet has worked
on many different musical concepts from the very beginning, such as performing living
composers, creating interdisciplinary projects and at the same time learning the classical and
traditional string quartet discipline.
