Hagen Quartett

The Hagen Quartet, founded in 1981 in Salzburg, Austria, is a string quartet consisting of siblings Lukas, Angelika (later replaced by Annette Bik and then Rainer Schmidt), Veronika, and Clemens. The ensemble won the Portsmouth International String Quartet Competition in 1982 and made its debut at the Salzburg Festival in 1984. It has built an extensive discography with Deutsche Grammophon, including recordings such as Dvořák: String Quartet No. 12 “American”; Cypresses / Kodály: String Quartet No. 2 (released in the late 1980s) and a multi-volume cycle of Beethoven string quartets in the early 2000s.They performed the complete Beethoven cycle in major cities during the 2012–2013 season and played on four famous Stradivarius instruments from December 2013 to August 2017. They won the Accademia Musicale Chigiana International Prize in 1996 and were named ECHO Klassik Ensemble of the Year for Hagen Quartett 30 in 2011.