Mary Ellen Woodside, violin

Meesun Hong, violin

Alexander Besa, viola

Rafael Rosenfeld, cello

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„..each individual is a musician of the highest technical ability, but what is more impressive is how they create a completely homogenous and harmonious ensemble.  Their honest approach to the works convinces me as intelligent and mature.  If this all sounds too serious, allow me to emphasize the group’s joyful and youthful playing…“

Bernard Haitink on the Merel Quartet, 2006

Since its formation in 2002, the Merel Quartet, resident in Zürich, Switzerland, has received unanimous praise:

“New to the Salzburger Festspiel stage:  the Merel Quartet. This young Zürich ensemble’s music-making is extraordinarily precise and tonally exceedingly well-matched.”

Wiener Zeitung on the quartet’s debut at the Salzburger Festspiele (August, 2008)

“… with utmost expressivity and a subtle sense of form, tone and rhetoric.”

Neue Zürcher Zeitung on the Merel Quartet at the Ittinger Pfingstkonzerte (May 2007)

The Merel Quartet performs extensively in Europe in such prestigious venues as the Zurich Tonhalle and Wigmore Hall, and in such important festivals as the Salzburger Festspiele, Lucerne Festival, Kunstfest Weimar, the Menuhin Festival in Gstaad, the „Omaggio a Palladio’ series in Vicenza, and are regular guests of András Schiff and Heinz Holliger at the Ittingen Whitsun Festival.

In addition, the quartet has collaborated with such artists as Ruth Ziesak, Juliana Banse, Dénes Várjon, Nobuko Imai, Thomas Demenga, Heinz Holliger, Christoph Schiller, Quatuor Ebène, the Stamitz Quartet, and the Panocha Quartet, among others.

„It is with great pleasure that I recommend the Merel Quartet, as the latest, most welcome addition to the podiums of the chamber music world.  I wish the quartet the recognition they deserve.“

Alfred Brendel on the Merel Quartet, 2006

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