Winners of the overall 2nd Prize at the 2015 Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition, the Giocoso String Quartet has emerged as one of the most promising and exciting string quartets of their generation.

Founded in Vienna, the Quartet has been the recipient of chamber music prizes such as the Alban Berg Prize, Krenek Prize and Artis Prize at ISA Reichenau in Austria (2011), the HSBC Prize of the Aix-en-Provence Festival 2012 as well as the Vienna Windisch Chamber Music Prize in both 2012 and 2014. In 2016 they won the “Jeunesses Musicales Special Prize” at the world-renowned ARD International Music Competition in Munich, Germany.

Their international touring schedule has seen them give acclaimed recitals in Europe, Asia, South America and Australia, in countries such as Germany, Austria, the UK, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Turkey, Romania, Switzerland, Brazil, Japan, South Korea and Thailand. As part of the Musica Viva Australia Special Prize, the Quartet was invited for an extensive tour through Australia in an exciting collaboration with the world-renowned Israeli mandolinist Avi Avital. Further highlights of their international touring include performances in Wigmore Hall in London, the Great Hall of the Romanian Atheneum in Bucharest and the Musikverein in Vienna. 

They have been guests at international chamber music festivals such as the Bordeaux and Aix-en-Provence Festival in France, the Beethoven, Styrian and Kalkalpen Chamber Music Festival in Austria, the Orlando Festival in the Netherlands, and the Niedersachsen Festival in Germany, among many others.

During the quartet’s formative years, they received valuable musical impulses from such people as, Günter Pichler, Hatto Beyerle and Gerhard Schulz of the Alban Berg Quartet, Rainer Schmidt (Hagen Quartet),  Andras Keller (Keller Quartet), Miguel da Silva (Ysayë Quartet), Stefan Metz (Orlando Quartet), Petr Prause (Talich Quartet), Hariolf Schlichtig (Cherubini Quartet) as well as Michel Letiec, Eberhard Feltz, Ferenc Rados, Avedis Kouyoumdjian, , Evgenia Epshtein (Aviv Quartet), Shmuel Ashkenasi (Vermeer Quartet) and Dan Prelipcean (Voces Quartet).

Alumni of the renowned European Chamber Music Academy (ECMA) – led by prominent professors Hatto Beyerle and Johannes Meissl –, they have been provided numerous international concert opportunities on top of regularly organised masterclasses with internationally renowned artists.


Comprised of members from Germany, Romania, Spain and Canada, all four members of the Giocoso String Quartet are prizewinning musicians, admired both as soloists and chamber music players.