MInetti Quartet

The Austrian Minetti Quartet was founded in 2003 at the Vienna University of Music and, since its early nomination for the European Concert Hall Organisation (ECHO) Rising Stars tour, has repeatedly per-formed in Europe's most prestigious concert halls and at renowned large and small classical music festi-vals since the beginning of its career.

 

Many concerts are recorded by radio stations and broadcast internationally. 

Tours have also taken them to Australia, Japan, China, Argentina, Mexico, Turkey and the USA. High-lights of the past season included another CD release and repeat invitations to the Vienna Konzerthaus, Wigmore Hall London, Philharmonie Luxembourg, Schubertiade Schwarzenberg and MuTh in Vienna, where they have been organising their own concert cycles since 2017, as well as two extensive tours with pianist Kit Armstrong and the annual summer tour through Austria. 

With Kit Armstring, there were also concerts at the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, the Alte Oper Frankfurt, the Flagey in Brussels and the Victoria Hall in Geneva. In April 2025, the next US tour took place with concerts in Los Angeles, Boston and NYC, among other cities. Forma-tive and supportive personalities were the members of the Alban Berg, Artis, Artemis, Hagen and Mandelring Quartets and, as scholarship holders of the European Chamber Music Academy (ECMA), the pianists Alfred Brendel and Ferenc Rados.

 

The quartet's illustrious list of guests includes chamber music partners such as Fazil Say, Till Fellner, Jörg Widmann, Sharon Kam and members of the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonic Orchestras. The Minetti Quartet has also performed as soloists with the RSO Vienna and the Bruckner Orchestra Linz.

 

Their collaboration with contemporary composers, including Austrian composers, has repeatedly led to new works being dedicated to them, which they then premiere. 

 

The Minetti Quartet has won numerous international chamber music competitions and has also received the Start Scholarship from the Austrian Federal Ministry and the Karajan Scholarship.

 

Since 2009, Hänssler Classic and Avi Music have released six highly acclaimed CD recordings. The latest CD, featuring works by Berg, Shostakovich and Ligeti, was produced with financial support from the Alban Berg Foundation Vienna and Asamer Kies- und Betonwerke GmbH.

 

Milan Milojicic and Leonhard Roczek (head of the institute) teach chamber music at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg.

 

The name ‘Minetti’ refers to a play by the writer Thomas Bernhard, who lived for a time in Ohlsdorf, where the two violinists of the quartet also grew up. 

 

The Austrian National Bank has loaned the Minetti Quartet two violins by G. B. Guadagnini (‘Mantegazza’ 1774 and ‘ex Meinel’ 1770-1775) and a violoncello by G. Tononi (Bologna, 1681). The strings are provided by Pirastro.