Quatuor Magenta awarded quartet of instruments made from the same trees

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The French Quatuor Magenta has been given a quartet of instruments, all of which are made with the same two trees: a maple for the instrument backs and hazel spruce for the instruments’ tables. The instruments were made by luthier Stefan Peter Greiner and were commissioned by the Musique & Vin au Clos Vougeot association to be given to a promising young quartet. 

The association chose the young French quartet following consultation from ProQuartet and Impresariat Simmenauer, a major European string quartet agency. 

The Quatuor Magenta said of the instruments, which it is now the custodian of: 

’It’s an enormous honour to be playing on these four magnificent instruments by Peter Greiner. They have an immense palette of sound to explore, from the most delicate pianos to explosive fortes, and give us capacities of blend and balance as a group that were difficult to find with other instrument combinations. We can really tell that these four were made to be played together. 

‘The wood in these instruments came from the same two trees and we find that really inspiring for a string quartet, which is a very particular formation that requires us to spend endless hours together, to become something of a musical family who know each other inside out. The fact that the very materials of the instruments we play have been growing as one for hundreds of years before they were transformed into our instruments adds an almost spiritual depth to the fusion that we’re searching for as a group.’

Before the construction of the instruments, Greiner said: 

’It’s always a big challenge for a luthier to make a string quartet… They will be made in the same style and design, and of standard size.’

The Quatuor Magenta comprises violinists Ida Derbesse and Elena Watson-Perry, violist Claire Pass-Lanneau and cellist Fiona Robson. They met while studing at the Paris Conservatoire of Music. The group is a junior artist-in-residence at the Singer-Polignac Foundation and grand resident at ProQuartet.

In 2025 the group participated in the Bordeaux and Banff string quartet competitions, winning the Anderson Career Development Award in Banff. Their mentors include the Ébène and Modigliani quartets, as well as Rainer Schmidt of the Hagen Quartet.

The quartet has performed at venues and festivals including the Philharmonie de Paris,  Festival de RadioFrance Montpellier and Banff Centre. In the spring of 2026 they will undertake a Canadian tour, where they will perform in Toronto, Montreal, Halifax, London (Ontario), and other cities.