Danish String Quartet

Violinists Frederik Øland and Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen and violist Asbjørn Nørgaard first met as children at a Danish music summer camp, where they played both football and music together. They later formed a serious string quartet during their teens while studying at the Royal Academy of Music, Copenhagen. At that time, the ensemble was known as the Young Danish String Quartet. In 2008, the group was joined by Norwegian cellist Fredrik Schøyen Sjölin, prompting a change of name to the Danish String Quartet. The quartet’s primary teacher and mentor was Tim Frederiksen, and they have taken part in master classes with the Tokyo and Emerson String Quartets, Alasdair Tait, Paul Katz, Hugh Maguire, Levon Chilingirian, and Gábor Takács-Nagy. Since 2007, the ensemble has curated its own annual event, the DSQ Festival, in Copenhagen. In 2016, they launched Series of Four, their concert series held in the concert hall of the Royal Danish Academy of Music. In 2013, the quartet began a three-year appointment as members of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center's CMS Two Program. They were named a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist ensemble for 2013–15, and Musical America named them Ensemble of the Year in 2019. In 2024, the quartet released its third folk-music album, Keel Road.