Amati Quartet - Shupp Artists

AMATI QUARTETWilli Zimmermann, violinAnahit Kurtikyan, violinNicolas Corti, violaClaudius Herrmann, celloThe Amati Quartet was formed in 1981, and already shortly after its founding received several prizes,amongst them the "Premiere Grand Prix du Concours" in Evian (1982), the Kunstpreis of the City ofZurich (1983) and the first prize in the Karl-Klingler Competition in Munich (1986).Besides the classical and romantic repertoires, the four artists have a special affinity for music of the 20thcentury. They take a seldom- played work and juxtapose it with the relevant works of the quartetliterature to form an exciting program. Their interest in contemporary music is also shown in the worldpremieres they have given of works by Ysang Yun, Wladimir Vogel, Bettina Skrzypczak, Terry Riley,Rudolf Kelterborn, Chaya Czernowin, Emmanuel Nunes and others.Artistic challenge and inspiration are provided by the occasional expansion into a quintet- whether it iswith piano, wind instrument, and additional string instrument, or even voice. Among the chamber musicpartners of the Amati Quartet have been such well-known artists as Krystian Zimerman, RadovanVlarkovic, Antonio Meneses, Vladimir Mendelsohn, David Geringas, Karl Engel, Bruno Canino, andEduard Brunner.The ensemble regularly tours throughout Europe, Japan and in the Near East. In North America, theensemble has been engaged by chamber music series of e.g.Toronto and Vancouver, Mexico City andMonterrey, Los Angeles, Chicago, Cincinnati, Atlanta, Washington, D.C., and in New York City by theFrick Collection and Carnegie Hall’s quartet series. In addition, the quartet has appeared at the wellknownfestivals of Kuhmo, Gstaad, Berlin, Ascona, Schwetzingen and Luzern and has made numerousradio and CD recordings. Two of its CD recordings- Shostakovich 3 &7 as well as Szymanovski werehonored with the Prize of the German Record Reviewers and their recent Haydn release was awarded theprestigious Choc Musique. The Amati Quartet records for the Divox Label.