Leonkoro Quartet wins 2022 Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition

The Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition has announced the Leonkoro Quartet as first prize winners in this year’s competition, with second prize going to the Adelphi Quartet and third prize to the Affinity Quartet.

As well as a cash prize of £10,000, a recital at Wigmore Hall and international residencies and concerts, the Leonkoro Quartet also won the Bram Eldering Prize for the best performance of a 19th century quartet, the Sidney Griller Award for the best performance of Sally Beamish’s Nine Fragments, the Haydn Prize, the Alan Bradley Mozart Prize and the Twentieth Century Prize.

Wigmore Hall artistic and executive director, John Gilhooly, said: ‘This past week had been an extraordinary celebration of the string quartet, witnessed both by our live audiences in London as well as the thousands of viewers around the world who watched the live stream.’

Gilhooly chaired the competition jury which also included violists Jonathan Brown, Hélène Clément, violinists Simin Ganatra and Laura Samuel (leader of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra) and cellists Kyril Zlotnikov and Louise Hopkins (also head of strings at Guildhall School of Music & Drama).

Founded in 2019 and based in Berlin, the Leonkoro Quartet is comprised of violinists Jonathan Schwarz and Amelie Wallner, violist Mayu Konoe and cellist Lukas Schwarz. The group has studied at the University of the Arts Berlin, and at Madrid’s Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía.

Their various accolades include first prize at both the International Chamber Music Competition at the Virtuoso & Belcanto Festival in Italy, and the Alice Samter Chamber Music Competition. The ensemble has also won the second prize at the Sound & Explanation Competition and the Audience Prize at the Paolo Borciani International String Quartet Competition.

The Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition is open to ensembles made up of players up to 35 years old. With origins tracing back to 1979, the competition moved to Wigmore Hall in 2010. You can find out more about the competition here.

You can find out more about Leonkoro Quartet here.