Quartetto Di Cremona - About

The support of BBT has been for us a real change in our quartet life. In Italy, where chamber music and particularly string quartet playing is neglected, and where there are very few possibilities for a young group to develop and start a good career, winning the Fellowship enabled us to continue more serenely with our artistic development with the artists we really needed to work with throughout Europe. If we can now be appreciated as a quartet internationally it is very much because of the help we have received from the Trust and also the personal contact that we get, which is normally lacking in these kinds of organisation.

Since its formation in 2000, this Italian quartet has established a reputation as one of the most celebrated chamber ensembles appearing on stage, on air and on CD. Appearing throughout Europe, South America, the US and the Far East, the Quartet has garnered universal acclaim for its extensive repertoire which ranges from early Haydn to contemporary music.

In its early years, and in a country where surviving as professional chamber musicians is difficult, Quartetto di Cremona’s BBT Fellowship helped sustain its development by covering costs associated with studies, music scores, concert clothes, website development, touring and recording. Later on the Cremonas received the Franco Buitoni Award for a recording project, Italian Postcards, which was dedicated to Franco Buitoni and also marked their 20th anniversary as a quartet – with its original founding members.  As part of an ongoing Italian Institute of Culture initiative at the University of Arts in Tirana, Albania, the Cremonas also utilised their Franco Buitoni Award to establish a fund to send Italian luthiers to Albania to provide free assessments, repairs and adjustments to instruments and bows for young music students.

Quartetto di Cremona was supported with a BBT Fellowship between 2005 and 2018 and the Franco Buitoni Award 2019.

For a current biography please visit quartettodicremona.com

Press Releases: Franco Buitoni Award 2019 / Italian Postcards

Photographs by Nikolaj Lund