Auryn Quartet Disband After 40 Years Together

The German group announced in 2019 that they would disband at the end of the 2020/21 season

The German-based Auryn Quartet has played their last-ever concert at the Mondsee Musiktage on August 27, after four decades together.

While the group was studying with the Amadeus Quartet in Cologne during the 1980s, they agreed that they too would aim for a 40-year career to match that of their mentors.

They have now fulfilled that goal, and have played two years' worth of "wind-down" concerts after announcing that they would disband in 2019.

The quartet’s members include violinists Matthias Lingenfelder and Jens Oppermann, violist Stewart Eaton, and cellist Andreas Arndt.

The ensemble began working together in 1981, naming themselves Auryn after a name in a German fantasy novel by Michael Ende, entitled The Neverending Story.

The ensemble was awarded first prize at the 1982 London International String Quartet Competition and at the 1982 ARD International Music Competition. They have recorded all 68 Haydn quartets, as well as 15 of Beethoven's quartets and the Grosse Fuge.

Alongside their impressive concert schedule and discography, the quartet also ran a chamber music festival in Italy, the Incontri Internazionali, and the Musiktage Mondsee concerts in Austria.

Matthias Lingenfelder will remain in the director's role for the Mondsee festival following the quartet's disbandment.