foto: Foppe Schut
The Pelargos Quartet was founded in 2016 and consists of violinists Stephanie van Duijn, Kaja Majoor, violist Anna Jurriaanse and cellist Diederik Smulders. All members are currently studying at or recently graduated from the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague and Conservatorium van Amsterdam.
Pelargos regularly performs, in The Hague and across The Netherlands. They gave concerts in venues such as Nieuwe Kerk in The Hague, Tivoli Vredenburg in Utrecht and the Westergasfabriek in Amsterdam. During their studies at the Royal Conservatoire, the quartet has been coached by violist Ásdís Valdimarsdóttir and violinists Janet Krause and Peter Brunt. Besides. Pelargos has received masterclasses from all the members of Quatuor Danel and members of Cuarteto Casals.
In June 2019, Pelargos performed the Helicopter String Quartet by Karlheinz Stockhausen at the Holland Festival in Amsterdam, as part of the opera cycle “aus Licht”. In four separate helicopters, the quartet flew over Amsterdam while playing. The audience followed the performance live from the Westergasfabriek. This was really a big highlight, it was extremely exciting for us to be part of something so huge and inspiring.
The Pelargos Quartet has a natural love for the standard string quartet repertoire but also has a great interest in modern and living composers.