Barbican Quartet wins 8th International Joseph Joachim Chamber Music Competition

The Barbican Quartet have won first prize and a special prize for the best interpretation of a work composed before 1830 at the 8th International Joseph Joachim Chamber Music Competition.

The quartet was founded at Guildhall School of Music & Drama and consists of violinists Amarins Wierdsma (Violin, 2017) and Tim Crawford (Violin, 2017), violist Christoph Slenczka (Viola, 2016) and cellist Yoanna Prodanova (Cello, 2018). They were winners of the RPS Albert and Eugenie Frost Prize in 2018.

Second prize and special prize for best performance of a contemporary work went to the Marmen Quartet, String Quartet Fellows at Guildhall School. The Marmen Quartet consist of violinists Johannes Marmen and Ricky Gore, violist Bryony Gibson-Cornish and cellist Steffan Morris, and were winners of the RPS Albert and Eugenie Frost Prize in 2017.

The competition saw participation from 19 piano trios, string trios and string quartets drawn from all over the world, and was organised by the University of Music FRANZ LISZT Weimar.

Held every three years, the competition is named after the violinist, conductor and composer Joseph Joachim (1831-1907), who was a member of the piano trio Liszt-Joachim-Coßmann.