The Isla Quartet took home both the first prize and audience prize
The finals of the second Bad Tölz International String Quartet Competition took place on 12 April. The Isla Quartet from the UK was awarded the €12,000 first prize as well as the €1,000 audience prize.
Quartet Kairi, from Japan and China, won the €8,000 second prize while the Kandinsky Quartet from Austria was awarded third prize worth €4,000. A special prize for the best interpretation of the commissioned work by composer Jean-Sélim Abdelmoula was given to the Moser Quartet.
The Isla Quartet comprises violinists Mio Takahashi and Kynan Walker, violist Sofia Gomez Alberto and cellist Danushka Edirisinghe. The group formed at London’s Royal Academy of Music where it received mentorship from members of the Doric Quartet and Marmen Quartet.
As 2023-24 Britten Pears Young Artists, the Isla Quartet has played at the Aldeburgh Jubilee Hall and received coaching from Alasdair Beatson. Other notable collaborations include performing with violist and composer Brett Dean as well as Brahms’s Piano Quartet with Ryan Wigglesworth.
The group became Tillett Debut Artists in 2025, which entails performances throughout the UK until 2027 in venues such as Conway Hall, Kings Lynn Festival and Hexham Abbey. Recently selected for the Tunnell Trust Music Club Award Scheme, the quartet will undertake a Scotland concert tour in 2027.
Other competition success includes first prize at the 2025 Royal College of Music Quartet Competition and 2024 Royal Academy of Music Nina Drucker Haydn String Quartet Competition, as well as being finalists in the 2025 Royal Over-Seas League Competition.
The 2026 jury was chaired by Belcea Quartet violist Krzysztof Chorzelski and comprised Marc Steinberg, Oliver Wille, Jonathan Brown, John Myerscough, Estelle Choi, Andrea Hampl and Holger Busse.
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