The 2026 Brahms Prize has been awarded to the Mandelring Quartet. The Brahms Society of Schleswig-Holstein is honoring one of the world's most respected string quartet ensembles, which sets an exemplary standard for this art form, according to a statement released on Friday. The award ceremony, which includes a prize of €10,000, will take place on September 26 in Wesselburen (Dithmarschen district).

Mandelring Quartet

The string quartet, founded in 1983 by three young siblings and a friend who was a viola student, launched an international career after initial major competition successes, a career that continues unabated to this day, explained the Brahms Society. Their Hambach Music Festival, founded in 1997, and the concert series at the Berlin Philharmonie, launched in 2010, are further testaments to their outstanding position in the music world. "Always a particular focus: Brahms' chamber music for strings, which the Mandelrings have performed in cycles on several occasions and recorded to great acclaim on CDs," the statement continued.

At the award ceremony, the Mandelring Quartet will play two works by Johannes Brahms: the String Quartet in A minor, Op. 51/2, and the String Quintet in G major, Op. 111, in which they will be joined by violist Roland Glassl, who was himself a member of the Mandelring Quartet from 1999 to 2015.

The Brahms Prize has been awarded since 1988. The first recipient was the conductor and pianist Leonard Bernstein with the Vienna Philharmonic. Since then, the honor has gone to, among others, the baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, the clarinetist Sabine Meyer, the Thomanerchor (St. Thomas Choir), the conductors Christoph Eschenbach and Herbert Blomstedt, and most recently the Windsbach Boys' Choir.

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