Nightingale String Quartet

The Nightingale String Quartet, an extraordinary ensemble based in Copenhagen, features Gunvor Sihm and Josefine Dalsgaard on violins, Marie Louise Broholt Jensen on viola, and Louisa Schwab on cello. The quartet honed their craft at the Royal Danish Academy of Music under the tutelage of Professor Tim Frederiksen, their unwavering mentor since the quartet’s inception in 2007.

The ensemble has garnered numerous accolades at both national and international chamber music competitions. In 2010, they received DR P2’s Talent Prize for their ‘ardent passion, irresistible zest, and infectious sensitivity to each other’s playing, bringing the classical string quartet vibrantly to life for both new and seasoned listeners.’ Their accolades continued with the Léonie Sonning Talent Prize, Jacob Gade’s Grant, and the Odd Fellow Lodges’ Grant in 2011. In 2013, they performed as soloists with the Tivoli Symphony Orchestra upon receiving the Music Reviewers’ Artist Prize. Notably, in 2014, they became the first ensemble to receive Gramophone’s Young Artist of the Year Award.

Beyond their considerable concert activity in Denmark, the Nightingale String Quartet has toured extensively, gracing stages in Brazil, the UK, the Netherlands, China, Russia, Sweden, South Africa, Germany, and the USA. Their international profile was further enhanced by their debut at London’s Wigmore Hall in January 2014.

Their ambitious recording project of Rued Langgaard’s complete string quartets for Dacapo Records, initiated in 2012, substantially raised their international reputation. This series garnered the quartet Editor’s Choice accolades from both Gramophone and BBC Music Magazine, the DR P2 Prize for Danish Release of the Year 2013 and secured a Gramophone Award nomination in 2015. Their outstanding artistry was recognised with a grant from the Carl Nielsen and Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen Foundation in 2017 and their designation as the Wilhelm Hansen Ensemble for 2020–22. During this period, they held the position of permanent house ensemble at Copenhagen’s Church of Holmen.

In 2021, the quartet embarked on an audacious new venture: recording the complete string quartets of Vagn Holmboe. The first album in this series was lauded by critics, earning Editor’s Choice in Gramophone, which praised their performance for its ‘gripping sense of drama’, rendered in ‘richly vivid sound’. The second volume, released in 2022, continued to garner acclaim, with Gramophone naming it one of the year’s best, and BBC Music Magazine extolling their performance as ‘lush, romantic playing, but equally clean and spacious.’

The Nightingale String Quartet performs on instruments generously loaned by the Augustinus Foundation.