Biography
Formed under the midnight sun in Lofoten in 2005, the Engegård Quartet has rapidly become one of Norway’s most sought after ensembles. Their bold, fresh interpretations of the classical repertoire combined with a deep attachment to their Scandinavian roots has attracted international acclaim, and inspired some innovative partnerships and programming.
The quartet’s debut CD was praised as ‘breathtaking’ in The Strad, while their second release won Pizzicato magazine’s ‘Supersonic Award’. Their CD of works by Grieg, Sibelius, and Olav Anton Thommessen was praised by Tully Potter in Music Web International as ‘what Grieg
lovers have been waiting for’.
The Engegård Quartet has a busy concert schedule throughout Scandinavia and further afield. They have performed in some of Europe’s finest venues including the Mozarteum in Salzburg and Prague’s Rudolfinum, as well as several tours to South America. The Engegård Quartet have been delighted to appear in international festivals such as Delft Chamber Music Festival, SoNoRo Festival in Bucharest, and Heidelberg’s Streichquartettfest.
Deeply committed to today's composers and to keeping the string quartet repertoire alive and developing, the Engegård Quartet has commissioned several works throughout their career. They have focused first and foremost on Norwegian composers including Maja Solveig Kjelstrup Ratkje, Olav Anton Thommessen, Therese Birkelund Ulvo and Cecilie Ore. International commissions who have written for the Engegård Quartet include Olli Mustonen, Philip Dutton and Julian Anderson.
The Engegård Quartet's acclaimed collaborations with the jazz violinist Ola Kvernberg and hardanger fiddler Nils Økland and have lead to commissions including the Telemark Quintet from Nils Anders Mortensen, and Hypnagogia and The Flight from Ola Kvernberg. Several of these commissions have been recorded by the Engegård Quartet.
On the classical front, the Engegård Quartet has had the honour to work with (among others) Sir András Schiff, Leif Ove Andsnes, Christian Ihle Hadland, Paul Lewis, Dènes Várion, Nabuko Imai, Kim Kashkashian and Emma Johnson MBE.
The Engegård Quartet's concert and recording programmes reflect their passion for the core quartet repertoire and their desire to discover and share new musical worlds. They have recorded the complete string quartets by Robert Schumann, Catharinus Elling and Johan Kvandal, and are recording the complete string quartets by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. You will find the Engegård Quartet's recordings on 2L, BIS, Simax and LAWO CLASSICS.
From psalms to polkas, Norway's folk music tradition has been part of the Engegård Quartet's repertoire from the start. They have recently released several folk music videos, many in their own arrangements for string quartet.
Members of the quartet are deeply involved in bringing superb chamber music to Norway – Arvid Engegård as Co-Founder and Artistic Director of the Lofoten International Chamber Music Festival, and several quartet members are deeply involved in the Oslo Quartet Series. The Engegård Quartet’s own ‘1-2-3 Festival’ focuses on one composer over a long weekend, and has proved immensely popular ever since its inaugural year of 2016. Every November, in "Nynorskens hus”, right in the center of Oslo, this classical minifestival provides a feast of chamber music, song, piano works, and lectures. Read more on 123festival.no.
Arvid Engegård plays a Jean Baptiste Vuillaume violin (1858) on loan from Dextra Musica. Laura Custodio Sabas plays a Jean Baptiste Vuillaume violin (1857). Juliet Jopling plays a Pietro Giovanni Mantegazza from Milano (1790) on loan from Dextra Musica and Jan Clemens Carlsen plays a Giacomo Zanoli cello (1737) on loan from Dextra Musica.
The Engegård Quartet is supported by the Norwegian Arts Council.
Download
About us
Arvid Engegård
Arvid Engegård was born in Bodø, North Norway in 1963. He was leading his first string quartet aged eleven, when he also gave his first concerto performance in Mozart’s Piano Concerto KV 488. At age fourteen, Engegård won the Ole Bull Prize leading to tours of America and appeared as soloist with the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra and Oslo Philharmonic.
Following a year with Zvi Zeitlin at Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, Engegård turned to Sándor Végh in Salzburg for his final studies. He was soon invited by Végh to lead Camerata Academica, a position he kept for eight years. Many recordings made during this period include the complete Divertimentos by Mozart, and Bartók Contrasts with Sir András Schiff for Decca.
In 1991 Engegård was invited to lead the Orlando String Quartet, performing regularly throughout Europe. Since 1999 Arvid has developed a considerable career as a conductor, working with orchestras such as the BBC Concert Orchestra, Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, Concerto Budapest and the Oslo Philharmonic. Arvid Engegård is the Artistic Director of Lofoten International Chamber Music Festival which he runs together with his best friend Knut Kirkesæther. In 2005, Arvid founded the Engegård Quartet together with Atle Sponberg, Jan-Erik Gustafsson and Juliet Jopling, which has been his main passion ever since.
In his free time, Arvid likes to…. play the violin. At a push… play fugues on the piano… or spend time with family and close friends. Arvid hates the heat, running for the shade, his sunhat, and something to quench his thirst. Arvid is a passionate cook. His culinary achievements include creating a perfect fish soup for 120 guests.
Laura Custodio Sabas
Catalan violinist Laura Custodio Sabas first moved to London at the age of 16 to attend the prestigious Purcell School for Young Musicians, under a Department for Education Music and Dance Scheme scholarship. She continued her studies at the Royal Academy of Music, where she completed her Bachelor and Master of Music, under the tutelage of Igor Petrushevski and Levon Chilingirian, and received regular masterclasses from Maxim Vengerov. As a young quartet player, Laura received mentorship from Oliver Wille, Christoph Richter, Krzystof Chorzelski and Jonathan Brown.
Laura was a member of the award winning Fitzroy Quartet between 2016 – 2021, with whom she performed across the UK, Europe and South Africa. As a member of the Fitzroy Quartet she gave her debut recital in Wigmore Hall in 2018 and won many awards and prizes such as the Beethoven Prize in the 2nd International Beethoven Chamber Music Competition (2017), the Tunnell Trust Award (2018) and 1st Prize in the Royal Over-Seas League Competition (2020).
As an orchestral player, she has performed with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, London Mozart Players, Glyndebourne Opera, Den Norske Opera & Ballett, Orquesta de Cadaques, English Touring Opera and the Pacific Music Festival Orchestra, among others.
Laura is a founding member of the Mitsu Trio, with whom she regularly performs in the UK and is a keen advocate of contemporary music and often collaborates with Sound Salon, a flexible ensemble that provides a space for creative collaborations between performers and composers.
Laura joined the Engegård Quartet in June 2022 and has since then been enjoying discovering Norwegian language, culture and beautiful surroundings. Her big fascinations outside of music are psychology, good food and being outdoors, preferably surrounded by mountains or water, or both!
Juliet Jopling
Juliet Jopling was born in 1972 in Essex, England. As a child, Juliet played string quartets with her siblings Daisy and Orlando Jopling and their father John Jopling, a professional barrister, then eco-philosopher and activist. However most of the credit for their music-making goes to their mum, Zélie Jopling, who got them to practice, and their aunt Louise Grattan née Jopling, who inspired them on music camps.
Highlights from Juliet’s early career include prizes from the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition, being awarded Honours in her Performing Diploma from the Royal College of Music aged just 17, and being the soloist in Walton’s Viola Concerto with the Philharmonia aged 20. After completing a Masters in Economics at Trinity College, Cambridge, where Juliet wrote her dissertation in 1995 on the pros and cons of imposing a carbon tax in China, Miss Jopling took further studies on the viola at the Mozarteum in Salzburg with Thomas Riebl.
Juliet is now the Principal Viola in the Norwegian Opera and Ballet Orchestra. However, it is as a chamber musician, and as a creative and driving force, which Juliet has really found herself. She was a founding member of the Sándor Végh Ensemble, which had a residency in Vienna’s Musikverein, and founded and directed Kerry’s International Chamber Music Festival until 2009. Juliet was for many years the driving force behind Nordberg String Orchestra, and is the founder and co-artistic director of Oslo Quartet Series. Juliet plays a Giuseppe Guadagnini viola built in 1770.
An ideal life for Juliet is a perfect balance between her vegetable garden, her family, and the Engegård Quartet.
Jan Clemens Carlsen
Jan Clemens Carlsen began his studies at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg in 2001 with Heidi Litschauer and the Hagen Quartet. In 2004 he moved to the Folkwang Hochschule in Essen, where he studied with Christoph Richter. From 2006 to 2008 he was a student of Truls Mørk at the Norwegian Academy of Music and later his assistant.
He has won prizes at the Norwegian String Championships, the ConocoPhillips Competition and in 2008 was awarded second prize at the Princess Astrid Music Prize.
Jan Clemens has performed as a soloist and chamber musician at a number of festivals in Norway and abroad, and has worked with musicians such as András Schiff, Leif Ove Andsnes, Lukas Hagen, Guy Braunstein, Marc-Andre Hamelin, Jean Efflam Bavouzet, Torleif Thedéen, Olli Mustonen, Timothy Eddy, Daniel Phillips, Emma Johnson and Marianna Shirinyan.
Since 2013, Jan Clemens Carlsen has been the cellist of the Engegård Quartet, with whom he has released a number of recordings on 2L, LAWO Classics and BIS.
Jan Clemens plays a cello made by Giacomo Zanoli in 1737, made available by Dextra Musica.