Cong Quartet

A string quartet in demand around Asia, Europe, and the United States, Cong Quartet is the top prize and Adolfo Betti Award winner of the Virtuoso & Belcanto’s Chamber Music Competition in Italy in 2022. They were also the first prize and Grand Prize winner at the 2019 Salzburg Mozart International Chamber Competition in Tokyo, 2nd prize in the 2021 Kreutzer International Competition in Belgium, 3rd prize in the 2024 International Music Competition Triomphe de l’Art in Brussels and was a finalist of several international chamber music competitions. The quartet was priorly the Ensemble-in-Residence of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) from 2019. The quartet is now a member of the Le Dimore del Quartetto in Italy and served the Musique à Flaine ’s artistic residency in 2023.

Supported by the Emerging Artists Scheme of the Hong Kong Art Development Council (ADC) and the Stichting Utopia (The Utopia Foundation), Cong Quartet has been a quartet at the Nederlandse Strijkkwartet Academie (NSKA), as well as being on the young artist roster of the Musethica in Europe and a musical partner of Domaine de La Garde in Bourg-en-Bresse, France. The quartet has participated in the Juilliard String Quartet Seminar and the Robert Mann String Quartet Institute in New York, the European Chamber Music Academy(ECMA), the Ashkenasi/Kirshbaum Chamber Music Seminar at The Heifetz International Music Institute, the Intensive String Quartet seminar at Music Academy Hörpu in Iceland, the Ozawa International Chamber Music Academy in Japan, as well as Music in PyeongChang in South Korea and sponsored by the Artsylvia Foundation. They have also coached young & adult chamber music groups at CUHK, the Madeline Island Chamber Music, HIMA USA, the Indiana University Summer String Academy, the Accademia Internazionale di Musica di Cagliari and many more places.

Their important mentors include the Ysaye Quartet & Artistic Director Marc Danel from the NSKA, Pacifica Quartet at Indiana University, Shmuel Ashkenasi & Nicholas Kitchen at the Heifetz Institute, Ivan Chan at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, and have worked extensively with members of Borromeo, Brentano, Cavani, Danel, Dover, Ébène, Guarneri, Jerusalem, Juilliard, Shanghai & Tokyo Quartets. Cong Quartet have performed with world-renowned artists such as Rohan de Silva, Yovan Markovitch, Enrico Pace, Yuri Bashmet, Joshua Bell among many others. In this past year, they also focused on collaborations with prominent musicians of their generation such as violinist Angela Chan, Jinjoo Cho, Shannon Lee, violist Adrien La Marca, cellist Brannon Cho & Sterling Elliott.

Cong Quartet believes that the humanistic experience of chamber music is a treasure to the community. They share the philosophy of promoting chamber repertoire from their generation and in Hong Kong, as well as integrating chamber music into the daily lives of audiences. The name of the quartet, “CONG” is a combination of the quartet founding members’ last names that allude to Hong “Kong”, where the members grew up and played together since their teenage years before the Quartet was officially formed at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music in the US.

Highlights of their recent seasons included concert series in New York, Tokyo, Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, France and Germany, performed as guest artists in recitals at various universities across the United States and a residency at the Composers Forum of the University of North Texas. Cong Quartet is currently the collaboration-ensemble of the Emerging Composer Fellowship of Hong Kong Composers' Guild.