Quartetto Prometeo

Quartetto Prometeo, is a well-established string quartet from Italy. In May of 1998, they won the 50th Prague Spring International Music Competition. They were also awarded the Special Bärenreiter Prize for Best Performance of Mozart’s Quartet K. 590.They are recipients of the Pro Harmonia Mundi prize. The Quartetto Prometeo was appointed resident quartet, from 1998 to 1999, at the Britten Pears Academy in Aldeburgh and was awarded the Thomastik Infeld prize at the Internationale Sommer Akademie Prag-Wien-Budapest in 1999 for “outstanding performance of a chamber music work”.The quartet won second prize at the Concours International de Quatuors in Bordeaux in 1999 and, in 2000, the Special Bärenreiter Prize at the ARD Munich Competition. Then, in 2012 they were honored to receive the Leone d’Argento, one of the highest distinctions in music in Italy. At present, Quartetto Prometeo is the quartet-in-residence at the prestigious Accademia Filarmonica Romana. 

One of the leading characteristics of Quartetto Prometeo is ferquent experimentation with both classical repertoire and contemporary pieces. Their close collaboration with Italian composer Salvatore Sciarrino resulted in his dedicating two pieces to them; the Esercizi di Tre Stili and the Quartetto No. 8. Quartetto Prometeo also regularly collaborates with composer Ivan Fedele and in 2011 premiered Moroloja Kai Erotika for string quartet and voice; the piece was commissioned by the Accademia Filarmonica Romana and dedicated to them. After the successful recording of the complete Schumann String Quartets (label Amadeus), Quartetto Prometeo has gone on to release a new CD dedicated to Salvatore Sciarrino (label Kairos), and another dedicated to Ivan Fedele. The work Fragmente – Stille, an Diotima by Luigi Nono was performed by Quartetto Prometeo at the invitation of Ostrava Days 2023 festival, and this year it will be repeated on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the composer's birth in the concert Essential Sciarrino+.