String Quartet
Biography:
JADE QUARTET
Hanlin Liang, violin
Hyunji You, violin
Igor Michalski, viola
Shihyu You wood, cello
JADE not only means the meaningful gemstone, but also stands for »JA« (the Chinese word for Asia) and »DE« for Germany, the adopted country. This connection is also part of the program of the quartet, whose special concern is to perform works from the native Asia in addition to the classical European quartet literature. Numerous compositions have been written especially for the Jade Quartet.
The beginning of their mutual career was winning the 3rd prize at the 5th Osaka International Chamber Music Competition in 2005, the l. Prize in the Germany-wide university competition in 2004 and the presentation of the Iris Marquart Prize. The Jade Quartet also received grants from the Villa Musica Foundation and the Karl Klingler Foundation. In 2005 it was voted "Musician of the Year 2005" in the string quartet category due to its success in the Osaka competition. In May 2007 the quartet won first prize at the international interpretation competition »Klangbrücke« for contemporary string quartets in Munich.
The Jade Quartet has been invited to festivals such as the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Oberstdorfer Musiksommer or the Musikalischer Sommer Ostfriesland in Germany, in other European countries and in Asia. In addition to the performance of classical string quartet literature, the Jade Quartet has made a name for itself primarily through the interpretation of contemporary works.
Radio recordings and television portraits document the work of the quartet. A portrait of the Jade Quartet was presented in the 2006 program »SWR Musikdebüt«. In June 2008, the quartet performed Louis Spohr's Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra with the Evergreen Orchestra in Keelung and Taipei (Taiwan). After the CD recording of the string octets by Mendelssohn and Shostakovich by Animato, together with the Cuarteto Leonor, a CD with string quartets by Maurice Ravel and Antonín Dvořák, the slow movement by Anton Webern and the heroic song by the Taiwanese composer Taishiang Lee was released in 2008.
Albums:
