The Quatuor Ebène will be awarded the Bremen Music Festival Prize 2026. The organizers announced on Tuesday that this award recognizes the French string quartet's contributions to the festival and the international music world. The non-monetary prize will be presented to the musicians at a private reception following their final concert in Bremen on August 23.

Quatuor Ebène

The Quatuor Ebène was founded in 1999 by four young students at the music academy in Boulogne-Billancourt. Following their victory at the ARD Music Competition in 2004, they performed in venues including the Philharmonie de Paris, Berlin, Cologne and Luxembourg, as well as Carnegie Hall in New York, Wigmore Hall in London and the Konzerthaus in Vienna.

Since its debut at the music festival in 2007, the ensemble has impressively demonstrated why it has been among the world's leading string quartets for over two decades, the jury explained. "Exceptional technical and interpretative skill, as well as an almost telepathic understanding among the musicians, are combined in the Quatuor Ebène with a gripping, passionate, and strikingly fresh approach that elicits new, unexpected facets even from popular works of the string quartet repertoire," the jury stated in its reasoning. With its performance of all 16 Beethoven quartets over six evenings (August 16–23), "the Quatuor Ebène puts the crown on its previous work at the music festival.".

The Bremen Music Festival Prize has been awarded annually since 1998 to distinguished soloists, ensembles, orchestras, and conductors who have made a unique impact on the international music scene through their outstanding artistic achievements and have significantly shaped the profile of the music festival. Past recipients include Jessye Norman, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Sir András Schiff, Marc Minkowski, Hélène Grimaud, Masaaki Suzuki, Janine Jansen, Rolando Villazón and most recently, Hervé Niquet and his ensemble Le Concert Spirituel.

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