String Quartet 'Arete Quartet' Wins 1st Place at Mozart International Competition

Teacher 'Nobus Quartet' Wins Second Championship Following First Victory

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heeyoon] The string quartet 'Arete Quartet' won first place at the 15th Mozart International Competition.

Arete Quartet.
Photo by Mok Production

On the 10th, their agency Mok Production announced that Arete Quartet won first place and the Best Interpretation Award for Mozart String Quartet at the competition held on the 9th (local time) in Salzburg, Austria.

In the final round, Arete Quartet performed Mozart's String Quartet No. 465 'Dissonance', Toshio Hosokawa's 'UTA-ORI weaving song' for string quartet, and Jan??ek's String Quartet No. 1 'Kreutzer Sonata'.

Arete Quartet is a string quartet mainly composed of performers from Korea National University of Arts: Jeon Chaean (26, first violin), Yoo Dayoon (23, second violin guest), Jang Yunseon (28, viola), and Park Sunghyun (30, cello).

This is not the first time a Korean string quartet has won the Mozart International Competition. Previously, in 2014 at the 11th competition, Korea's Novus Quartet became the first Koreans to win. Arete Quartet has been mentored by Novus Quartet. With this victory, both teacher and student have consecutively taken first place in the same competition.

The Mozart International Competition has been held every three years since 1975 in Mozart's hometown Salzburg. It is a music competition affiliated with the World Federation of International Music Competitions, and this year's competition was held for the first time in five years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The second place went to Affinity Quartet, and third place to Eden Quartet.

Arete Quartet gained public recognition by becoming the first Koreans to win first place and five special awards in the string quartet category at the 2021 Prague Spring International Music Competition, and receiving a special prize at the 2022 ARD International Music Competition. Arete Quartet, scheduled to perform at the Seoul Spring Chamber Music Festival in April, plans to hold their second regular concert in the first half of this year.