BANFF, Alberta — A young quartet enters a major competition. Nervous in the harsh jury spotlight, they perform poorly and feel like losers. They leave dispirited.
Not at Banff. Just performing at the Banff International String Quartet Competition advances careers — win or lose. Those were the stakes — one weekend. As competition artistic director Barry Shiffman, himself a competitor three decades ago with the St. Lawrence String Quartet, repeats to anyone who will listen: The winner wins the weekend. All the quartets belong here, and all the quartets benefit.
The winner of the weekend was the Cincinnati-based Poiesis Quartet, which garnered $25,000 (all awards Canadian), tours, residencies, and other awards, for a total of more than $500,000. Second place went to the Berlin-based Arete Quartet, which won $12,000 and a residency at the Banff Centre. Quartet KAIRI, which is based in Salzburg, won the third prize of $8,000 and a residency at the Banff Centre.
Shiffman hasn’t just nurtured the competitors during his tenure; he’s cultivated an astute, focused audience. The triennial competition now has chamber-music festivals every summer in between (which Shiffman began after the 2016 competition), making it an annual destination vacation for music lovers.
Resident spots on campus for the competition sell out in hours. Every concert, lecture, and discussion finds a full house. “You work so hard to get here, and you play four rounds before any cuts,” said violist Jasper de Boor of the Poiesis Quartet. “The audience takes away all the bad stuff.”
Various Haydn quartets, coupled with works from this century, opened the week of performances. These were followed by major Romantic works, a quartet written for the competition by Canadian-American composer Kati Agócs, and a Beethoven or Schubert matched with 20th-dcentury compositions. After that, three finalists performed a program of their choosing. Fatigue and nerves played a part during the marathon, but every work by every quartet felt well-rehearsed and thoughtfully considered.
Everyone is a professional, and backgrounds varied. Most quartets had had multiple competition experiences. Some competed for practical reasons, like approaching age limits. Some orchestra professionals were building chamber connections. For everyone, Banff was likely their most ambitious competition undertaking. More than three dozen hopefuls applied.
All of the musicians were available for interviews during the event, which felt like an imposition, given the intense schedule. Nearly three dozen conversations proved almost as intriguing as the performances.
Just getting to the competition becomes a dream objective. “I heard about Banff two or three editions ago,” said Umut Saglam, cellist in the Viatores Quartet, which walked away with a 10-day, warm-weather residency in the Grenadines (one of the many prizes).
“I have texts from five years ago: ‘I want to be in Banff,'” said Viatore second violinist Johannes Brzoska. “It was always a fairy tale to be on that stage. It’s a competition, but it feels like a celebration. I never thought I could play here, then I joined this quartet, and that became a reality.”
Hotaka Sakai, cellist in Quartet KAIRI, went to high school in Japan with his friends, first and second violinists Taiga Sasaki and Yu Mita, an impressively long musical collaboration for any trio, certainly thirtysomethings. (Chinese violist Jiliang Shi joined in 2023.)
“Our teacher, Saiko Azuma, passed away a few months ago,” Sakai said. “She gave us our name — KAIRI. It’s a measure of the sea, like ‘one kairi, two kairi.’ She meant for us not to stay on our small island, but to go beyond the sea, with our music. It’s difficult to survive in the string quartet world. We want to stay together as long as possible. Here it feels like we are building something.”
The basic delight in playing chamber music provided reason enough for some to be here. “We care, and we don’t care” about winning, said violinist Gyurim Kwak of Munich-based Quartett HANA. “The most important thing is to share our music.”
“Loving chamber music is the reason we started playing,” said HANA violist Simon Rosier.
All nine quartets have some professional footing; all want it to be better. “We still keep other parts of our lives going,” said Saskia Niehl, violinist with Bremen-based Nerida Quartet. “It can be stressful, but it can be worthwhile. The work will stay; it doesn’t matter what the jury decides. And we’re here to see Canada. For me, it’s really beautiful.”
“The quartet is not completely profitable at home,” Nerida’s other first violinist, Jeffrey Armstrong, said, “so we keep our options open. Our goal for a year was to budget the time, to work, do a whole bunch of rehearsals, and to play concerts.”
Arete Quartet came to Banff after winning first prizes at competitions in Prague (2021), Salzburg (2023), and Lyon (2024). Pointing out that no Korean quartet had ever participated at Banff, cellist Seonghyeon Park said, “We want to do our best here.”
“We have won before,” said Arete violist Yoonsun Jang, “but Banff opens doors.”
Arete’s first violinist, Chaeann Jeon, stated emphatically that “this is our last competition. We want to do what we love, and we would be glad to win. But we also want to play with more freedom, and when there is a jury marking us, it’s unforgiving.” Backing up her confidence, Arete played its way into the finals with poise, thoroughly envious technique, and insight to a broad swath of repertoire.
The Paris-based Quatuor Magenta includes a native Canadian, cellist Fiona Robson. “I came here for a performance when I was eight or nine,” she said. “In the music world in Canada, you are always aware of Banff.”
Her French stagemates share her point of pride. “We’ve already made a tour of Canada, last year,” said first violinist Ida Derbesse. “It’s important for us to be a French quartet in Canada — and elsewhere, of course.”
“Here we can lay the foundation for a bigger presence,” said violinist Elena Watson-Perry.
Each repertoire choice had a tell: of a quartet’s confidence, technique, history — all subtle, all different. For the Poiesis Quartet, this competition was not only a test of mettle, it was a forum for identity. The eventual competition winner cemented a place in the finals with a spectacular performance at the conclusion of the open competition: Bartók’s String Quartet No. 5 (the first work the group ever learned!). Then Poiesis stole the finals with royally inclusive and distinctive choices: quartets by Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate, Brian Raphael Nabors, Ken Hisaishi, and Kevin Lau.
Throughout the competition, new works had been juxtaposed with the canon, like a counterweight. That made Poiesis’ choices feel like a declaration. “These composers are not getting programmed; we’re taking them on tour,” said violinist Sarah Ying Ma. “They are all underrepresented.”
“The final round presents our ensemble, our values,” cellist Drew Dansby said. “We feel like everything we’ve done is being fulfilled with this.”
