The Danish String Quartet has the unusual distinction of being a group of young musicians with an extensive history of musical collaboration. Its three Danish-born members, Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen, Frederik Øland and Asbjørn Nørgaard first played chamber music together in a music summer camp before they were even teenagers, and then continued to do so throughout the school year of their own volition.
In 2001 Tim Frederiksen of The Royal Academy of Music in Copenhagen, who had been the leader of Den Danske Strygekvartet became the quartet’s mentor and main teacher. “All of a sudden, at the ages of 15 and 16, we were a serious string quartet. It all happened so fast that none of us seemed to notice the transition. We were enrolled at The Royal Academy of Music and our life as music students had begun. None of us have any memory of our lives without the string quartet.”
In 2006 they made their first recordings – of Carl Nielsen’s quartets – as the Young Danish String Quartet, immediately attracting the attention of publications from Gramophone to the New York Times.
In 2008, Norwegian cellist Fredrik Schøyen Sjölin joined the quartet, and the group has since gone from strength to strength, with a concert programme embracing core classical repertoire and contemporary music and highlighting Scandinavian composers, as well as folk music, which they also play with verve and commitment. Danish string quartet receives the “The Leonie Sonning” music prize 2015
In 2017, NPR Music named the quartet’s second folk music album, Last Leaf, the Best Classical Album of 2017 in 2019, the quartet was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance for its album Prism
