Gara Quartet was founded in Cologne in 2020 by four young musicians that felt the necessity of devoting themselves to the Historical Informed Practice with freshness and passion.
The fundamental milestones of this ensemble are, on the one hand, to explore intensively the origin of the string quartet repertoire – in which research and work with musicological sources play a central role – and on the other hand, to give new impulses to the musical dialogue along the rhetoric guidelines with new performing perspectives and sound conception. The challenge of finding other ways of playing but keeping a historically informed background is an exciting task for the quartet, as is the search for its own identity.
After studying in many different places like Cologne, The Hague, Trossingen and Frankfurt – Gara Quartet chose Cologne and The Hague as the starting point for the ensemble. Its four members work regularly with important orchestras in the Early Music scene, such as Concerto Köln, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Le Concert des Nations, Bach Vereniging, Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century among others. They have received lessons from renowned performers of the field such as Shunske Sato, Amandine Beyer, Richard Gwilt, Olivier Fourès, Roel Dieltiens, Lars Ulrik Mortensen, Petra Müllejans and from ensembles like the Casals and Quiroga Quartets.
Their interest in experiencing and researching deeply the possibilities of the string quartet, together with their desire to discover new sound layers, lead the Gara Quartet to display an energetic and vibrant playing, taking full advantage of the richness gut strings offer and the liveliness of historical bows.