Quartetto Noûs
Noûs (nùs) is a Greek word whose meaning is ‘mind’, and thence ‘rationality’, but also ‘inspiration’ and ‘creativity’.
Formed in 2011, the Quartetto Noûs has gone on to established itself as one of the most interesting chamber music ensembles of its generation.
The quartet studied at the Accademia Walter Stauffer in Cremona with the Quartetto di Cremona, at the Basel Musik Akademie with Rainer Schmidt (Hagen Quartet), at the Escuela Superior de Música ‘Reina Sofia’ in Madrid and at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena with Günter Pichler (Alban Berg Quartet) and at the Lübeck Musikhochschule with Heime Müller (Artemis Quartet).
In 2014 Quartetto Noûs was selected to take part in the project ‘Le Dimore del Quartetto’. In the same year, they were also awarded a scholarship offered by the Foundatión Albeniz of Madrid.
The Piero Farulli Prize, given to the best emerging chamber music group was awarded to the quartet in 2015.
The versatility and the interpretative originality of the ensemble appears in the quartet’s repertoire and the attention to the new compositional languages drives the Quartet to experiment with innovative concert formats like performing by heart in complete darkness.
The Noûs has worked with several contemporary composers and taken part in many cross-cutting projects with theatre and dance companies.
They have collaborated with renowned artists like Tommaso Lonquich, Andrea Lucchesini, Bruno Canino, Boris Petrushansky to name but a few.
In Italy the Quartetto Noûs has performed in prestigious concert seasons in Milan, Turin, Florence, Bologna Bergamo,Venice, Trieste, Lucca, Naples, Rome, Cremona and have appeared at Festivals such as the Ravenna Festival and Settimane Musicali in Stresa.
Further afield the quartet regularly performs in Scotland, England, Germany, Switzerland, France, Spain, Canada, United States, South Korea and China.
Their performances have been broadcasted by several radio stations such as RAI Radio 3, Venice Classic Radio, Radio Clásica and RSI.
In 2013 and 2017 they were Quartet in residence at Festival Ticino Musica in Lugano.
The Quartetto Noûs has recorded with music labels such as Brilliant Classics, Tactus, DaVinci Edition and Warner Classics.
From 2021 to 2024 the Quartet has recorded the “complete” Shostakovich’ string quartets for Brilliant Classics.
In the 2024/25 season the Quartet performs in Canada, in Cartagena (Colombia), Prague and in the UK the quartet tours Scotland, and performs in Norwich and in Oxford. In Italy the Quartet appears regularly in the most prestigious concert series.
