Pavel Haas Quartet

The Pavel Haas Quartet has become its generation’s representative of the tradition of great Czech string quartets. It takes its name from that of Czech composer Pavel Haas, who died in Auschwitz in 1944. The quartet has gone on to tour extensively and has won several awards for its recordings.
The Pavel Haas Quartet was formed in Prague in 2002. The founding members were violinists Veronika Jarůšková and Kateřina Gemrotová, violist Pavel Nikl, and cellist Lukáš Polák, who soon swapped positions with Peter Jarůšek of the Škampa Quartet. In 2012, Marek Zwiebel became the fourth person to take on the position of second violin. Nikl resigned from the group in 2016 but has remained associated with the group as a permanent guest of the group for quintet performances. Following Nikl’s resignation, several violists performed with the group, with Luosha Fang taking the position in 2021. Early on, Jarůšková sought the advice of violist Milan Škampa of the Smetana Quartet, and he remains a close mentor of the younger quartet. Naturally, the three string quartets of Haas and those of other Czech composers are an important cornerstone of their active repertoire, but it also specializes in the core string quartet works of Mozart, Beethoven, Prokofiev, and Shostakovich.
The quartet has recorded exclusively for Supraphon since 2006, when its debut album, Janáček and Haas, won the “Newcomer of the Year” distinction in BBC Music Magazine and a Gramophone Award. As part of competition prize awards, the Pavel Haas Quartet began to tour internationally in the 2007-2008 season, and it has since appeared throughout Europe, Australia, Asia, and North America. The quartet has also expanded its repertoire through collaborations with artists such as mezzo-soprano Bernarda Fink, percussionist Colin Currie, and pianist Nicholas Angelich. In early 2010, the quartet added a Diapason d’Or de l’Année award to its mantel (for Prokofiev), followed by a 2011 Gramophone Record of the Year (for Dvořák) and a 2014 Gramophone Best Chamber Music Record (for Schubert), among other recognitions. The Pavel Haas Quartet has won six Gramophone awards and captured a second Diapason d’Or in 2018 for its recording of Dvořák's quintets. In 2019, the quartet issued an album of Shostakovich quartets. The quartet celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2022 with a tour of Europe and North America and issued a recording of Brahms' piano and string quintets with pianist Boris Giltburg. ~ Patsy Morita