The Quatuor Agate were prize-winners in the 2021 YCAT International Auditions. This season they return to Wigmore Hall and give debut recitals at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam and Alte Oper Frankfurt.

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Formed in 2016, the Paris-based Quatuor Agate studied at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin with Eberhard Feltz, in Paris under the guidance of Mathieu Herzog, and with the Quatuor Ebène at the Hochschule für  Musik in Munich. In 2021, they were prize-winners at the Young Classical Artists Trust International Auditions. In 2023, the Quatuor Agate were named ECHO Rising Stars, and will be performing across Europe’s major concert halls in the 24/25 season as ECHO artists.

Highlights of the 22/23 season included debut recitals at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Alte Oper Frankfurt and Britten-Pears Arts in Aldeburgh.  They made their Wigmore hall debut and performed at the Lammermuir Festival in Scotland, collaborated with the Modigliani Quartet at the TauberPhilharmonie and the Diotima Quartet at the Lange Nacht der Streichquartette in Munich.  

Over the last year the Quatuor Agate have given recitals across Europe including at the Konzerthaus Dortmund, Brucknerhaus Linz, TauberPhilharmonie Weikersheim, Les Chaises Musicales, Août Musical (Deauville), Festival de l’Epau, Philharmonie de Paris, the Verbier, Salon-de-Provence, Radio France and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festivals. 

They have recorded with Frank Braley and Gabriel Le Magadureor the Naïve label, and have also recorded the complete Brahms Quartets due for release this season with Appassionato Records. 

The Quartet have been artists in residence at the Fondation Singer Polignac and Pro-Quartet in Paris. In 2016 they founded the CorsiClassic Festival with a mission to bring chamber music to areas of the island where it is rarely heard.

The 23/24 season sees the Quartet return to the Wigmore Hall as well as the Lammermuir Festival. They will be giving recitals at the Lebverkusen stART Festival and Internationales Musikfestival Heidelberger Früling. They will also be performing extensively across the UK. 

The Quartet has performed widely in Europe including the Hamburg International Chamber Music Festival, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Les Rencontres Musicales d’Evian, Konzertverein Schwerin and the Cini Foundation in Venice. They have collaborated with Pierre Fouchenneret, Florent Héau, Enrico Pace, Marc Danel, the Modigliani, Ébène and Jerusalem Quartets, among many others.

All four members of the Agate are from the South of France. It was their love for Berlin, and its rich and dynamic culture that brought them together as a Quartet.

The Quartet were prize-winners at the 2022 Banff International Competition (Canadian Commission Prize), the 2019 Verbier Festival Academy, and the 2020 Steels-Wilsing Foundation Competition at the Heidelberger Frühling Festival.  They have taken part in the Montreal and Aix-en-Provence Academies working with members of the Alban Berg, Ysaÿe, Talich and Vogler Quartets, Sir András Schiff, Tabea Zimmerman and  Christoph Poppen. 

The members of Quatuor Agate are:

Adrien Jurkovic - Violin

Thomas Descamps - Violin

Raphaël Pagnon - Viola

Simon Iachemet - Cello

The Quatuor Agate are Lauréats of the Fondation Banque Populaire. They are grateful for support from the Günther-Caspar Stiftung.

Adrien Jurkovic plays on a violin attributed to Giuseppe Giovanni Guarneri generously loaned by Dr Peter Hauber.

Thomas Descamps plays on a Omobono Stradivari violin generously loaned by the Fondation Boubo-Music.

Raphaël Pagnon plays on a Ferdinando Alberti viola generously loaned by the Fondation Boubo-Music.

Simon Iachemet plays on a Giacinto Santagiuliana cello generously loaned by the Fondation Boubo-Music.

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Press reviews

"The Quatuor Agate filled it with gorgeously warm tone for Haydn’s C Major Quartet, Op.20, slipping easily from the soulful intensity of the dark second movement into the lightness of the finale."

Contact

To book Quatuor Agate please contact

Etta Dainty – Senior Artist Manager [email protected]

Adam Maxey - Assistant Artist Manager [email protected]

0207 379 8477

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Photos © Kaupo Kikkas