Four string players from four different places meet to combine their voices, cultures and to explore music from around the world. Our projects range from illuminating C.20th string quartets to learning folk music from different cultures around the world, and incorporating them into new repertoire for the string quartet. We believe in music as a way of connecting people, and we start by connecting our four instrumental voices together in this ancient artform of string quartet playing.

Fascinated with our namesake Frieda Belinfante‘s life and work in the C.20th as a cellist, conductor and resistance fighter, the Belinfantes have come to love and treasure iconic string quartets of this time. They represent a historic moment in string quartet writing. They allow a window both into the future of music, and back to the ancient musical past. Find out more about our work on C.20th string quartets on Our Projects page with Frieda’s World.

The quartet have always been lovers of folk music. Their members come from different places (Scotland, England, Spain and The Netherlands). So they come from a wealth of different cultures and music traditions. Fiona started our arranging bug with a medley of Scottish tunes, soon followed by Pau composing with traditional music from the Island of Menorca. We soon realised how many cultures have not experienced the string quartet world. What better way to connect people, find new audiences and spread the joy of the string quartet, by learning and incorporating global traditional music into new pieces for string quartets? Find out more with our Around the Globe projects on Our Projects page below. Help us to safeguard the future of the string quartet artform by expanding its repertoire in new directions.

‘We make music, we compose it, we perform it’

Frieda Belinfante

Learn more about our namesake Frieda Belinfante, our projects, musical inspirations and all the things that make the art of string quartet playing so exciting for us on our website. Full biography and more about our members below!

The Belinfantes: Olivia, Fiona, Henrietta and Pau.

Biography

“Glowing ensemble playing and experimental spirit”  NRC ****

“The Belinfante Quartet are on terrific form” – BBC Music Magazine *****

The Belinfante Quartet is recognised as one of the most exciting string quartets of its generation, heralded for their engaging and innovative performances. Formed in the Netherlands in 2016, the quartet members come from The Netherlands, England, Scotland and Spain. They take their namesake from Dutch cellist, conductor and resistance fighter Frieda Belinfante.

Frieda Belinfante’s story, work and legacy have encouraged the quartet’s inventive programming, and their love of C.20th and modern quartets. C.20th quartets tell stories and ask questions of Frieda’s time, and give us the ability to travel into the musical past, to even before string quartet writing was invented. It allows us to travel through Europe and across the world, as Frieda, and so many artists who worked during WW2 did, encountering different cultures and new ideas. The Belinfantes are well-known in their projects for using folk music from around the world to introduce musical cultures to the string quartet art-form. They aim to widen the reach of the string quartet to places around the world who often haven’t had string quartets in their musical culture. Working with today’s composers is at the heart of their mission. From Sally Beamish to Caroline Shaw, they have also worked with composers such as Mathilde Wantenaar, Marion von Tilzer, Arthur Klaassens, Polina Medyulyanova and Rhiannon Randle.

In addition to these activities, the quartet enjoys the opportunity to collaborate with other artists including internationally renowned pianist Nino Gvetadze, Urban Dance Group Static and visual artist Jordi Cárdenas, together with whom they won the 2019 Delft Chamber Music Festival Award. In 2023 they were delighted to be a part of the Kronos Quartet’s ‘50 for the Future’ project, performing a selection from 50 quartet commissions for the Kronos Quartet in a festival hosted by the String Quartet Biennale Amsterdam in the Muziekgebouw.

The quartet has performed at festivals throughout Europe including: the String Quartet Biënnale Amsterdam; International Chamber Music Festival Utrecht; Zeistermuziekdagen; Wonderfeel; Trondheim Chamber Music Festival and Stift International Festival. Recent engagements have included performances at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Doelen in Rotterdam and Tivoli Vredenburg, Utrecht. The quartet regularly performs live on European radio stations such as NPO Radio 4 and BBC Radio 3 and their CD releases Ellipse (2022) and Parallel 40 (2024) with the Dutch label 7 Mountain Records received international acclaim. They are the recipients of several prizes, including receiving the Ensemble Of The Year 2022 award from Le Dimore del Quartetto.

The Belinfante Quartet studied at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover with Professor Oliver Wille, at NSKA in The Netherlands and they were a quartet in residence at the String Quartet Biennale Amsterdam Residency 2021 – 2022. The quartet has performed in masterclasses with Eberhard Feltz, Isabel Charisius and the Jerusalem, Casals, Signum, Ebene and Danel Quartets.

Members