Parkhouse Award, International chamber music competition

Monday 6 February, 7.45pm in the Purcell Room, Southbank Centre is the venue; Bridge, Saint-Saëns and Dvořák piano quartets are the programme.

During 2011 this outstanding German piano quartet not only won the Parkhouse Award, but also the Charles Hennen Concours in the Netherlands. Acclaimed clarinettist Sabine Meyer found them ‘immediately inspiring with their delight in playing and their high professionalism’.

The Notos Quartet formed in 2007 and appeared on Dutch Radio 4 Live in 2008. In 2009 they won the chamber music award at the International Mendelssohn Summer School in Hamburg and were prizewinners in the Waldthausen Music Competition. Performances at the Schwetzinger Festspiele and the Hambacher Musikfest achieved excellent reviews. During this period they received coaching from such renowned groups as the Fauré and Mandelring Quartets, members of the Trio Fontenay and the Alban Berg Quartet.

This is a young ensemble with a great future — catch them now!

Monday 6 February at 7.45pm: Purcell Room, Southbank Centre, London SE1 8XX

Tickets £15, £12, £8
Box office 0844 847 9910/southbankcentre.co.uk (transaction fees apply)
Concert ends c. 9.25pm

The Parkhouse Award is grateful for long-term support from the Gordon Foundation and The Tertis Foundation and recent generous sponsorship from the Sammermar Trust.

The Parkhouse Award was founded in 1990 by friends and colleagues of David Parkhouse to perpetuate his memory and the outstanding contribution he made to the performance of chamber music in Britain and abroad. It is essentially a practical prize for outstanding young ensembles which have been performing regularly during the two years prior to the competition. The winning ensemble is given the opportunity to launch its career in the most positive way possible, with concerts in London’s most prestigious venues. The Grieg Trio were the first winners, in 1991, and the competition has been held on alternate years ever since.

David Parkhouse was founder member of the Music Group of London, with Eileen Croxford and Hugh Bean, which performed and recorded extensively in the UK and abroad. They celebrated their 35th anniversary at Wigmore Hall in 1987 when they were in the unique position of being the longest-standing piano trio in the world.