Czech Chamber Music Society • Elphier Quartett & Petr Popelka

The Elphier Quartet was founded in 2016 in Hamburg. Its members are Lyudmila Minnibaeva (Violin), Yihua Jin-Mengel (Violin), Alla Rutter (Viola) and Phillip Wentrup (Cello).

Each of the four musicians comes from a different cultural background. What they have in common apart from many other things is they are all members of the NDR Elbphilharmonic Orchestra. The name Elphier Quartet therefore is a play on words which refers to their orchestral lineage and the nickname of the concert hall (=Elphi) on the one side and to the number of members (Vier = Four) on the other side.

Having often played the so called core repertoire of string quartet literature the Elphier Quartet focuses on the performance of until today seldom played works from classical composers, romantic as well as contemporary composers.

Most recently the Elphier Quartet worked together with the very well-known composer and conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen on his piece “Homunculus” which they will perform in February 2023 in the Great Hall of the Elbphilharmonie. Another essential project in 2023 will include the Premiere of a new work written by rising conductor and composer Petr Popelka.

Joining the Elphier Quartet on a regular basis are international celebrated pianist Anna Vinnitskaya, with whom the ensemble amongst other pieces performed the piano quintet by Mieczyslaw Weinberg in 2022, and highly respected pianist Haiou Zhang, with whom they hold an intense musical friendship reflected in various concerts and festival performances.

While each member of the Elphier Quartet is a national and international prizewinner they have already worked for numerous broadcasting companies and TV productions. Next to numerous concerts they have also played on various festivals around the globe.