ARTIS QUARTET

"....performances proved the Artis to be top class in the international chamber music league.." --Kurier /Vienna.
"........this was at last the concert that made you glad 1991 is Mozart year. Other artists try to imitate Mozart; these four are the real thing..." Asahi Evening News/Tokyo
"These players clutched the attention and held it with mesmeric intensity." - The Strad

Peter Schuhmayer, violin
Johannes Meissl, violin
Herbert Kefer, viola
Othmar Müller, cello

Founded in 1980, the Artis Quartet studied first at the University of Music in Vienna, then, having won prizes in competitions in Cambridge, England (1983), Evian, France (1984) and Yellow Springs, USA (1985) and in 1984/85 being holder of the Friedlander Fellowship studied with the LaSalle Quartet at the College Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati, USA.

In 1985 the ensemble began its international career performing in the most important venues and centers of music, including: London, Paris, New York, Washington, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Osaka, Rome, Venice, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Brussels, Zurich, Berlin, Frankfurt, Munich, Vienna and Salzburg as they played in Bangkok, New Delhi, Bombay, Istanbul, Montevideo, Santiago de Chile, Honolulu, the Faroe Islands and Buenos Aires, where the enthusiastic audiences in two concerts at the Teatro Colon gave a very warm welcome.

In Vienna, where the members of the Artis-Quartet live, their cycle of concerts at the Wiener Musikverein has been an annual event since 1988.
They have given first performances of many works by contemporary composers, such as Gottfried v. Einem, Helmut Eder, Thomas Pernes, Richard Dünser, Gerhard E. Winkler, Thomas Larcher, Gerhard Schedl, Haimo Wisser, Wolfgang Kubizek, Harry Pepl and Antonio Pino Vargas.
Notable moments in the history of the Quartet include the invitation to play all twenty-three Mozart quartets in a series of concerts in both Tokyo's Suntory Hall and Vienna during the Mozart Year 1991. This success was repeated with cycles of the complete Schubert quartets in 1997 at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, De Doelen in Rotterdam, and the Musikverein in Vienna.
The Artis Quartet has been invited by prestigious international festivals such as: Salzburger Festspiele, Wiener Festwochen, Schleswig Holstein, Ravinia, Ludwigsburg, Lockenhaus, Turku, Naantali, Gstaad, Prades, Granada, Bournemouth, Rouen, Hong Kong, Paris, Colmar, and many others.
They have recorded more than 20 CDs for Nimbus Records, Sony Classical, CBS/Sony, Orfeo, Accord and Koch/Schwann. Besides the "classical" quartet repertoire of Mozart, Beethoven Schubert, Brahms, Mendelssohn, Dvorak, Smetana and Schumann they also include works by Wolf, Webern, Gielen, Schönberg, Weigl and Berg, and have won such international awards as the Grand prix international du disque/Academie Charles Cros the Prix Caecilia,
The instruments of the Artis Quartet come with kind permission from the collection of the Oesterreichische Nationalbank. Peter Schuhmeyer plays a Domenico Montagnana, 1712; Johannes Meissl an Andrea Guarneri, 1690; Herbert Kefer a J. B. Guadagnini, 1784; and Othmar Müller an Andrea Amati, 1573.
The members of the Artis Quartet teach at the Universities of Vienna and Graz and give masterclasses around the world.