The Dudok Quartet Amsterdam is forging a reputation as one of the most creative and versatile young quartets of its generation.  With its mission of “sharing the heart of music”, the Dudok Quartet is committed to crafting unique and eclectic programmes in order to engage with its audiences in new and imaginative ways.

In repertoire ranging from Ligeti, Shostakovich and Weinberg through to Mendelssohn, Mozart and Beethoven the Quartet constantly strives to forge and explore new pathways and connections in music.  Their intelligent approach and flair for programming also sees them regularly perform their own arrangements of pieces and they have so far produced arrangements of composers including Gesualdo, des Prez and Brahms.  Collaboration is also a key part of the Quartet’s ethos and recent partners have included Pieter Wispelwey, Daria van den Bercken, Vladimir Mendelssohn, Erik Bosgraaf and Annelien Van Wauwe.

The Dudok Quartet has performed at many of the major European venues and festivals including the Vienna Konzerthaus, Beethoven Haus Bonn, De Doelen, Carinthischer Sommer Festival, Gergiev Festival, West Cork Chamber Music Festival, Festival Jeunes Talents, Festival Quatuors à Bordeaux and the Amsterdam String Quartet Biennale, as well as appearing regularly at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and Amsterdam Muziekgebouw.  The Quartet made its US debut in January 2018 at the Northwestern University Winter Chamber Music Festival, with future US plans including its New York debut at the Park Avenue Armory.  Highlights of the 2018/19 season include engagements in Milan, Mantova, Utrecht and Rotterdam, as well as returns to the Concertgebouw and Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam and performances at the Heidelberg String Quartet Festival.

In 2015 the Dudok Quartet released its first recording on the Resonus Classics label.  “Métamorphoses” explores the theme of musical innovation through works by Ligeti, Haydn and Brahms and was awarded Editor’s Choice in Gramophone, with the Quartet also being praised by The Guardian for its “lithe, lively sound and alert sense of structure and detail”.  The Quartet’s critically acclaimed second release in 2017, entitled “Labyrinth”, explores the use of counterpoint in works by Mozart, Ligeti and Bach.  Their most recent disc “Solitude” (2018) features works by Mendelssohn, Weinberg and Shostakovich curated around the theme of loss and loneliness, with The Strad praising the disc as “an intense listening experience that will have you on the edge of your seat”.

Other recent projects have included the world premiere of Kaija Saariaho’s opera Only the Sound Remains with Philippe Jaroussky and Dutch National Opera and a collaboration with director Rosabel Huguet re-imagining Beethoven’s Op 132 String Quartet for children.  Entitled “Quartet! A card game with Beethoven” the Quartet takes the project to venues including the Vienna Konzerthaus, Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, Flagey and De Doelen as part of their ongoing commitment to education and outreach work.

The Quartet performs on instruments generously on loan from the Dutch Musical Instrument Foundation (NMF); violins by Francesco Goffriller and Vincenzo Panormo, viola by Max Möller and cello by Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume.  The Quartet takes its name from renowned Dutch architect Willem Marinus Dudok (1884 – 1974). A great lover of music, Dudok came from a musical family and composed in his spare time, saying “I feel deeply the common core of music and architecture: after all, they both derive their value from the right proportions”.