The ‘Danish String Quartet’ is known for its performances of classical music as well as its own renditions of traditional Nordic folk music. The quartet has also worked with an extensive range of contemporary Scandinavian composers. The DSQ made its debut at the ‘Copenhagen Summer Festival’ in 2002 and its current members are:
Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen (b. 1983), violin
Frederik Øland (b. 1984), violin
Asbjørn Nørgaard (b. 1984), viola
Fredrik Schøyen Sjölin (b. 1982), cello

Violinists Frederik Øland and Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen and violist Asbjørn Nørgaard met as children at a Danish music summer camp where they played both football and music together, eventually making the transition into a serious string quartet in their teens and studying at Copenhagen‘s ‘Royal Academy of Music’. At the time the name of the group was ‘The Young Danish String Quartet’. In 2008, the three Danes were joined by Norwegian cellist Fredrik Schøyen Sjölin and changed the group’s name to ‘Danish String Quartet’, removing the word ‘Young’: the quartet was primarily taught and mentored by Professor Tim Frederiksen and has participated 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 group has curated its own annual festival, ‘DSQ Festival’, in Copenhagen. In 2013, the quartet began a three-year appointment at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s CMS Two Program. The quartet was named a ‘BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist’ for 2013-15 and ‘Ensemble of the Year’ by Musical America in 2019. 2016 marked the beginning of ‘Series of Four’, the quartet’s new concert series in the concert hall of ‘The Royal Danish Academy of Music’. In 2017, NPR Music named the quartet’s second folk music album, ‘Last Leaf’, the ‘Best Classical Album’ of 2017. In 2019, the quartet was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Chamber Music / Small Ensemble category for its album Prism I.

Discography

Prism IV (ECM Records, 2022)
Prism III (ECM Records, 2021)
Prism II (ECM Records, 2019)
Prism I (ECM Records, 2018)
Last Leaf (ECM Records, 2017)
Adès, Nørgård & Abrahamsen (ECM Records 2016)
Brahms/Fuchs: Clarinet Quintets with clarinetist Sebastian Manz (CAvi-music, 2014)
Wood Works (Dacapo Records, 2014)
Haydn/Brahms (CAvi-music, 2012)
Nielsen: String Quartets, Vol. 2 (Dacapo Records, 2008)
Nielsen: String Quartets, Vol. 1 (Dacapo Records, 2007)