Winners of the Grand Prize at the 2019 Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition, the Marmen Quartet is emerging as one of the most interesting voices on the chamber music scene. Additional accolades include winning the 2018 Royal Over-Seas League Competition and Second Prize at the 8th International Joseph Joachim Chamber Music Competition, as well as the Special Prize for the best interpretation of a contemporary work (Four Quarters by Thomas Adès). Founded in 2013 at the Royal College of Music, London, the Marmen Quartet consists of Johannes Marmen, Ricky Gore, Bryony Gibson-Cornish and Steffan Morris.
As the current holders of the Guildhall School of Music String Quartet Fellowship, they are based in London where they study with Simon Rowland-Jones and John Myerscough. They are also completing a Master of Chamber Music with Oliver Wille at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover. During 2015-17, they were the inaugural winners of Music In The Round’s ‘Bridge’ Scheme, which supported concerts in the north of England and mentoring with the late Peter Cropper.
The Marmen Quartet has appeared on ‘Deutschlandfunk Kultur’, ‘Swedish Radio’ and ‘BBC Radio 3’. They are the Young Quartet in Residence at Wiltshire Music Centre and they have received awards from the Musicians Company/Concordia Foundation, the Hattori Foundation, Help Musicians, as well as the Royal Philharmonic Society Albert and Eugenie Frost Prize. Festival highlights include performances in Hitzacker, Lockenhaus, Edinburgh Fringe, North Norfolk and Lake District. In the upcoming season, they are looking forward to a Beethoven Cycle in Sweden, debut in the Berlin Philharmonie, Cruise to Norway, tour to Japan, and octet performances with the Doric String Quartet.