Biography
Formed under the midnight sun in Lofoten in 2005, the Engegård Quartet has rapidly become one of Norway’s most sought after ensembles. Their bold, fresh interpretations of the classical repertoire combined with a deep attachment to their Scandinavian roots has attracted international acclaim, and inspired some innovative partnerships and programming. The quartet’s debut CD was praised as ‘breath-taking’ in The Strad, while their second release won Pizzicato magazine’s ‘Supersonic Award’. Their CD of works by Grieg, Sibelius and Olav Anton Thommessen was praised by Tully Potter in Music Web International as ‘what Grieg lovers have been waiting for’. Recent CD releases include Mozart’s ‘Prussian Quartets’ and the complete string quartets of Schumann.
The Engegård Quartet has a busy concert schedule throughout Scandinavia and further afield. They have performed in some of Europe’s finest venues including the Mozarteum in Salzburg and Prague’s Rudolfinum, and have travelled to South America for concerts in Bogotá and Sao Paolo. Festival performances include the Delft Chamber Music Festival, SoNoRo Festival in Bucharest, and Heidelberg’s Streichquartettfest. Members of the quartet are also deeply involved in bringing superb chamber music to Norway – Arvid Engegård as Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Lofoten International Chamber Music Festival, and several quartet members are deeply involved with Oslo Quartet Series.
The Engegård Quartet has had the honour to work with (among others) András Schiff, Leif Ove Andsnes, Christian Ihle Hadland, and Emma Johnson. They also love to collaborate with colleagues from different musical traditions, including a folk/classical fusion with Hardanger fiddler Nils Økland, a collaboration with jazz-violinist Ola Kvernberg, and a programme of Ibsen and late Beethoven with actor Bjørn Sundquist. The Engegård Quartet’s own ‘1-2-3 festival’ has proven immensely popular and is now a regular event each fall.
The Engegård Quartet is supported by the Norwegian Arts Council.
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About us
Arvid Engegård
Arvid Engegård was born in Bodø, North Norway in 1963. He was leading his first string quartet aged eleven, when he also gave his first concerto performance in Mozart’s Piano Concerto KV 488. At age fourteen, Engegård won the Ole Bull Prize leading to tours of America and appeared as soloist with the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra and Oslo Philharmonic.
Following a year with Zvi Zeitlin at Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, Engegård turned to Sándor Végh in Salzburg for his final studies. He was soon invited by Végh to lead Camerata Academica, a position he kept for eight years. Many recordings made during this period include the complete Divertimentos by Mozart, and Bartók Contrasts with Sir András Schiff for Decca.
In 1991 Engegård was invited to lead the Orlando String Quartet, performing regularly throughout Europe. Since 1999 Arvid has developed a considerable career as a conductor, working with orchestras such as the BBC Concert Orchestra, Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, Concerto Budapest and the Oslo Philharmonic. Arvid Engegård is the Artistic Director of Lofoten International Chamber Music Festival which he runs together with his best friend Knut Kirkesæther. In 2005, Arvid founded the Engegård Quartet together with Atle Sponberg, Jan-Erik Gustafsson and Juliet Jopling, which has been his main passion ever since.
In his free time, Arvid likes to…. play the violin. At a push… play fugues on the piano… or spend time with family and close friends. Arvid hates the heat, running for the shade, his sunhat, and something to quench his thirst. Arvid is a passionate cook. His culinary achievements include creating a perfect fish soup for 120 guests.
Laura Custodio Sabas
Catalan violinist Laura Custodio Sabas first moved to London at the age of 16 to attend the prestigious Purcell School for Young Musicians, under a Department for Education Music and Dance Scheme scholarship. She continued her studies at the Royal Academy of Music, where she completed her Bachelor and Master of Music, under the tutelage of Igor Petrushevski and Levon Chilingirian, and received regular masterclasses from Maxim Vengerov. As a young quartet player, Laura received mentorship from Oliver Wille, Christoph Richter, Krzystof Chorzelski and Jonathan Brown.
Laura was a member of the award winning Fitzroy Quartet between 2016 – 2021, with whom she performed across the UK, Europe and South Africa. As a member of the Fitzroy Quartet she gave her debut recital in Wigmore Hall in 2018 and won many awards and prizes such as the Beethoven Prize in the 2nd International Beethoven Chamber Music Competition (2017), the Tunnell Trust Award (2018) and 1st Prize in the Royal Over-Seas League Competition (2020).
As an orchestral player, she has performed with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, London Mozart Players, Glyndebourne Opera, Den Norske Opera & Ballett, Orquesta de Cadaques, English Touring Opera and the Pacific Music Festival Orchestra, among others.
Laura is a founding member of the Mitsu Trio, with whom she regularly performs in the UK and is a keen advocate of contemporary music and often collaborates with Sound Salon, a flexible ensemble that provides a space for creative collaborations between performers and composers.
Laura joined the Engegård Quartet in June 2022 and has since then been enjoying discovering Norwegian language, culture and beautiful surroundings. Her big fascinations outside of music are psychology, good food and being outdoors, preferably surrounded by mountains or water, or both!
Juliet Jopling
Juliet Jopling was born in 1972 in Essex, England. As a child, Juliet played string quartets with her siblings Daisy and Orlando Jopling and their father John Jopling, a professional barrister, then eco-philosopher and activist. However most of the credit for their music-making goes to their mum, Zélie Jopling, who got them to practice, and their aunt Louise Grattan née Jopling, who inspired them on music camps.
Highlights from Juliet’s early career include prizes from the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition, being awarded Honours in her Performing Diploma from the Royal College of Music aged just 17, and being the soloist in Walton’s Viola Concerto with the Philharmonia aged 20. After completing a Masters in Economics at Trinity College, Cambridge, where Juliet wrote her dissertation in 1995 on the pros and cons of imposing a carbon tax in China, Miss Jopling took further studies on the viola at the Mozarteum in Salzburg with Thomas Riebl.
Juliet is now the Principal Viola in the Norwegian Opera and Ballet Orchestra. However, it is as a chamber musician, and as a creative and driving force, which Juliet has really found herself. She was a founding member of the Sándor Végh Ensemble, which had a residency in Vienna’s Musikverein, and founded and directed Kerry’s International Chamber Music Festival until 2009. Juliet was for many years the driving force behind Nordberg String Orchestra, and is the founder and co-artistic director of Oslo Quartet Series. Juliet plays a Giuseppe Guadagnini viola built in 1770.
An ideal life for Juliet is a perfect balance between her vegetable garden, her family, and the Engegård Quartet.
Jan Clemens Carlsen
Born in Austria in 1982, cellist Jan Clemens Carlsen studied with Hans Josef Groh at the Barratt-Due Music Institute and Prof. Heidi Litschauer at the Universität Mozarteum in Salzburg, where he also had lessons with the Hagen Quartet. In 2004 he won a place at the Folkwang-Hochschule in Essen to study for his Diploma with Prof. Christoph Richter. From 2006 to 2008 Jan Clemens was a pupil of Truls Mørk at the Norwegian Music School, and has since worked there periodically as his teaching assistant.
In 2008 Jan Clemens came 2nd in Princess Astrid's music prize, and has won awards in both the Norwegian string championship and the ConocoPhillips competition.
He has taken part in many festivals as a soloist and chamber musician, including the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival (Finland), the Hardanger Music Festival, the Sonoro Festival (Bucarest), the Lofoten International Chamber Music Festival, Festspillene i Bergen and the St. Magnus Festival (Orkney Islands).
Since 2013, Jan Clemens Carlsen has been cellist with the Engegård Quartet, with whom he has made a number of highly-acclaimed CDs and collaborated with many leading musicians, including András Schiff, Leif Ove Andsnes, Lukas Hagen, Marc-Andre Hamelin, Jean Efflam Bavouzet, Jan-Erik Gustafsson, Håvard Gimse, Steven Tennenbaum, Daniel Phillips, Marianne Beate Kjelland, Christian Ihle Hadland, Monika Leskovar, Emma Johnson, Marianna Shirinyan and Nils Anders Mortensen.
Jan Clemens plays a Giacomo Zanoli cello made in 1737, generously loaned to him by Dextra Musica.