IMG Artists is delighted to welcome the Castalian String Quartet to our roster for general management. The winners of the 2019 Royal Philharmonic Society’s Young Artists Award will be represented by Vice President and Artist Manager Derek Chandruang from the company’s London office.
Derek said: “This extremely fine group of musicians represents everything I love about music – achingly beautiful lines, fleeting moments, and gripping, honest emotion. From the very first moment I heard them, I knew I had to hear more! I look forward to working with the delightful Castalians and building on their strong reputations.”
Castalian String Quartet said: “As a string quartet it takes something special to find a unanimously trusted ‘fifth voice,’ but when Derek Chandruang and IMG Artists came calling we signed on the dotted line as fast as we could. This feels like a new chapter in the quartet’s life, and one we could not be more excited to begin.”
Hailed for their “powerful individuality of sound” and “instinctive singularity of musical intention” (The Scotsman), and performances that are “full of poetry, joy and sorrow…and realised to such perfection” (The Observer), the Castalian String Quartet are quickly emerging as one of the most exciting and in-demand quartets on the world stage.
Recent and forthcoming highlights include debut invitations to Carnegie Hall, Vienna Konzerthaus, Paris Philharmonie, Auditorium du Louvre, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Lucerne Chamber Music Society, Brussels Flagey, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Saffron Hall, and the Aldeburgh, East Neuk, Spoleto, North Norfolk, Heidelberg Spring, Rheingau, Mosel, and Dresden festivals. The Quartet’s 2019-2020 Wigmore Hall cycle of Brahms and Schumann featured collaborations with Stephen Hough, Cédric Tiberghien, Michael Collins, Nils Mönkemeyer, Isabel Charisius, and Ursula Smith. In 2018, they recorded the complete Haydn Opus 76 quartets for the Wigmore Live label.
Formed in 2011, the Castalian String Quartet studied with Oliver Wille of the Kuss Quartet at the Hannover Hochschule für Musik, soon winning 1st Prize at the 2015 Lyon Chamber Music Competition and 3rd Prize at the 2016 Banff International String Quartet Competition. Their many influential teachers to date include Simon-Rowland-Jones, David Waterman, and Isabel Charisius, and in 2016, the Quartet were selected by the Young Classical Artists Trust, and more recently were named recipients of the inaugural Merito String Quartet Award/Valentin Erben Prize and a 2018 Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship.
