The quartet will be in the role from 2026 to 2029
The Royal Academy of Music has announced that the Leonkoro Quartet will be its 2026–2029 Nina Drucker Fellows. The fellowship supports talented string quartets at the start of their careers, offering access to internal and external performance opportunities. The ensemble will also support the Academy’s chamber activity by coaching and performing alongside students for the next three academic years.
The Leonkoro Quartet comprises violinists Jonathan Schwarz and Emiri Kakiuchi, violist Mayu Konoe and cellist Lukas Schwarz. It has won major competitions including at the Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition and the Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition, and received the Jürgen Ponto Foundation Music Prize, MERITO String Quartet Award, Concertgebouw’s Young Talent Award and Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award.
The quartet was also one of BBC Radio 3’s New Generation Artists from 2022 to 2024 and is now one of Wigmore Hall’s Associate Artists until 2031.
The group studied with Heime Müller from the Artemis Quartet at the Lübeck University of Music, as well as with Günter Pichler at the Chamber Music Institute of the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía in Madrid. Other mentors include Eckart Runge and Gregor Sigl, and pianist Alfred Brendel.
The group has played at festivals including the Verbier Festival, Gstaad Menuhin Festival, Salzburg Festival and Barcelona String Quartet Biennale, and in venues including the Pierre Boulez Saal, Konserthuset Stockholm, Auditorio Nacional de Música Madrid, Warsaw Philharmonic and Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts.
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