Javus Quartett Takes Home Hans Gál Prize

The Austrian quartet will receive €10,000 in prize money

Administered jointly by the Mainz Academy of Sciences and Literature and the Villa Musica Foundation, the Hans Gál Prize was established in 2020 and carries a value of €10,000.

The 2022 edition was given to the Austrian ensemble, the Javus Quartett. Formed in 2016 while all its members were students at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, the Javus Quartett is comprised of Marie-Therese Schwöllinger and Alexandra Moser (violins), Anuschka Cidlinsky (viola), and Oscar Hagen (cello).

The group is particularly influenced by Lukas Hagen, and they are currently studying with Johannes Meissl in Vienna.

The Javus Quartett received Second Prize at the 2017 Chamber Music Competition C.R.D.M. in Udine, and the Audience Prize at the Irene Steels Wilsing Competition "Heidelberger Frühling" in 2020. In the 2021/22 season the group made their debut at Vienna's Musikverein.

The Gál Prize is named after the composer, musicologist, and teacher Hans Gál (1890-1987), the former director of the Mainz Conservatory, which later became the Hochschule für Musik and the Peter Cornelius Conservatory. At the 2022 edition, the jury was comprised of Academy members Claudia Eder and Peter Gülke, as well as the artistic director of Villa Musica, Alexander Hülshoff.

The quartet is an "extremely dynamic, perfectly rehearsed ensemble of three fantastic strings and a young cellist on an equal footing," according to members of the jury.

"Thanks to their studies at the Mozarteum they combine the tradition of the musical city of Salzburg with everything that a young string quartet has to offer today: perfect technique of each individual, blind understanding in interaction and maximum bandwidth in dynamics and timbres."