Ast Quartet
South Korea
Sungmoon Kim, violin
Minju Park, violin
Jinju Yang, viola
Eunju Cheung, cello
Biography
The Ast Quartet, whose name in German means “Branch”, conveys the message to stretch their music into the world just like branches in growth. Formed in September 2021, the quartet consists of four young, passionate Korean women residing in Germany.
Shortly after their formation, they performed concerts at the Berliner Philharmonie, the Japanese Osaka Chamber Music Horizon, the Mozart Festival of HfM Hanns Eisler Berlin, the 50th Anniversary Summer Festival of HMTM Hannover, the Crescendo Festival of the Universität der Künste Berlin, and Music in PyeongChang. They achieved first place in the Festival de Arte competition, second place in the Detmold Auryn Quartet competition, and reached the semifinals of the Concours de Genève.
The Ast Quartet has been awarded the Ernst von Siemens Music Scholarship and the scholarship from the Förderkreis der HMTMH e.V. They were also selected as scholarship recipients by Jeunesses Musicales Deutschland and received an invitation to the Hohenloher Kultursommer 2024.
The quartet members have gathered many musical inspirations from Corina Belcea, William Coleman, Eberhard Feltz, Mikayel Hakhnazaryan, Heime Müller, Wolfgang Redik and Tabea Zimmermann through masterclasses.
Ast Quartet currently studies at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover with Professor Oliver Wille.