Ragazze Quartet

The Ragazze Quartet is a young, Dutch string quartet, remarkable for its musical enthusiasm, talent,versatility and presentation. Its versatility in particular is unusual within the world of chamber music.The quartet collaborates with and performs alongside composers, other musicians – classical orotherwise – and artists working in a variety of disciplines. In such projects the Ragazze Quartetalways operates from its classical music core, while attempting to attain the ultimate crossover.

The different disciplines are approached entirely equally, but in so doing they complement andelevate one another.The quartet followed the two-year full-time curriculum of the Dutch String Quartet Academy(NSKA). There the members attended masterclasses directed by leading musicians from theinternational string quartet world, as well as lessons from their regular teachers Stefan Metz and MarcDanel. After completing the academy course the quartet was coached for a year by Luc MarieAguera, violinist in the Quatuor Ysaye; this was made possible by the Dutch Kersjes Foundation.In October 2007 the Ragazze Quartet toured Nepal, where, besides giving concerts, they metlocal musicians and shared musical ideas. Immediately after this tour, the Ragazze played in ‘TheDebut’, a concert series in all major Dutch concert halls.In March 2010 the quartet was invited to the Kronos Quartet workshop in New York City.

After an intense week the Ragazze performed several pieces from the Kronos repertoire in Carnegie Hall.The Ragazze Quartet performs regularly at chamber music venues throughout Holland (suchas the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Vredenburg Utrecht and Philipszaal The Hague) and abroad (including Paris, Prague, Geneva, Ljubljana and Rio de Janeiro).In 2012 the Ragazze Quartet signed a contract to record three CDs with the renownedChannel Classics label.The instruments played by Geneviève and Jeanita are kindly lent by the National MusicInstruments Foundation. In Haydn’s ‘Fifths’ quartet four classical bows made by Andreas Grutterwere used.