The quartet wins €12,000 and concert engagements
The Academy of Sciences and Literature Mainz and the Villa Musica Rhineland-Palatinate Foundation have awarded this year’s Hans Gál Ensemble Prize to the Viatores Quartet. It receives €12,000 and multiple concert engagements through the Villa Musica Rhineland-Palatinate’s annual programme.
The Viatores Quartet was established in 2023 and comprises British violinist Louisa Staples, 26, German violinist Johannes Brzoska, 26, Portuguese violist Miguel Erlich, 30, and Turkish cellist Umut Sağlam, 28.
The ensemble has studied at Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin, the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Frankfurt with Tabea Zimmermann, and is currently studying with Oliver Wille at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover.
Among its accolades, the quartet has won the first prize at the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy University Competition in 2024, second prize at the Irene Steels-Wilsing String Quartet Competition in 2025 and special prizes at the Wigmore Hall and Banff international string quartet competitions. Most recently, it won the first prize at the 2026 ARD International Music Competition.
‘With the Viatores Quartet, we are honouring one of the most promising young string quartets and supporting the ensemble on its path to an international career,’ the jury shared. ‘With their unmistakable, sensitive sound, the four musicians develop independent interpretations that are intelligent, uncompromising, and free from fashionable trends. They approach the scores with emotional depth and intellectual alertness, combining the highest instrumental quality with a highly personal musical expression. Thus, every work performed by the Viatores Quartet becomes an immediate, individual experience – one of artistic vision and at the same time possessing the power to directly touch an audience and captivate them with the music.’
The award ceremony will take place at the academy on 15 December in Mainz, Germany, and will feature a concert by the Viatores Quartet.
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