The Kandinsky Quartet, founded in Vienna in 2020, is rapidly establishing itself as one of the most compelling young string quartets in Europe. Prizewinners of the “Verbier Festival Anniversary Prize 2023”, the International Mozart Competition Salzburg, and the Boccherini Competition, the ensemble has already appeared at leading festivals such as the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Venice Biennale, Wien Modern, Milano Musica, Rheingau Festival, Heidelberger Frühling, Festival Música Sur, Chaise-Dieu, Styrian Chamber Music Festival, Brac Classic, Stars and Rising Stars, and Inventio Music.

In April 2024, they were awarded First Prize at the Gasteig Competition in Munich. They are also one of only 38 string quartets selected for the EU-funded MERITA program and are members of the ECMA (European Chamber Music Academy). Additionally, the quartet holds scholarships from Villa Musica, the Ulysses Network and Jeunesses Musicales Germany, and serves as ensemble-in-residence for the ArbeiterInnenkonzerte in Vienna – an outreach project focused on social housing, with five concerts per season.

The Kandinsky Quartet has worked closely with some of the most distinguished string quartets of our time, including the Belcea, Arditti, Kuss, Ysaÿe, Cuarteto Casals, Danel, Artis, Mosaïques, Diotima, and the Alban Berg Quartet. Coachings with leading artists such as Nicolas Altstaedt, Bruno Giuranna, Amihai Grosz, Dirk Mommertz, Mathieu Herzog, Gábor Takács-Nagy, and their mentor Elisabeth Leonskaja—who regularly invites them to perform with her—have further shaped their artistic development.

The Kandinsky Quartet is currently studying with Johannes Meissl in Vienna and Quatuor Ébène in Munich. From October 2025, they will further their education with Günter Pichler at the Reina Sofía School of Music in Madrid.

Highlights of the 2024/25 season include performances at festivals such as Il Circolo di Ave, Impuls Graz, Inventio Music, Mozartfest Würzburg, and the Alhaurín de la Torre Festival, as well as concerts at Solti Hall Budapest, Sala dei Giganti Padova, Reid Hall Paris, and Teatro Civico La Spezia, where they will perform together with Marie Chilemme (Quatuor Ébène).

  • Hannah Kandinsky, born in 1996 in Bremen and raised in Salzburg and Vienna, began playing the violin at the age of ten in the class for highly gifted of Arkadij Winokurow in Vienna. In 2013, she joined the class of Cornelia Löscher at the Joseph Haydn Conservatory as a pre-college student, before continuing her studies at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna in 2016. There, she completed her first diploma under the guidance of Lothar Strauß and Georg Hamann and is currently pursuing her master’s degree with Georg Hamann.

    In addition to numerous orchestral projects under renowned conductors such as Christian Thielemann, Lorenzo Viotti, and Kirill Petrenko, Hannah has participated in masterclasses with musicians including Vadim Gluzman, Eszter Haffner, Dora Schwarzberg, Asya Kushner, and Antje Weithaas. In 2017, she made her debut with the Moscow Chamber Orchestra and has been invited to prestigious festivals such as Aurora (Sweden), Piano Prestige (France), New Age Festival (Spain), and the Gustav Mahler Academy (Italy).

    Hannah has also performed as guest concertmaster with the Folkwang Chamber Orchestra and is a member of the Les Essences Chamber Orchestra. As a co-founder of the Kandinsky Quartet and the Vienna-based concert series Outta Tune—which is dedicated to engaging new and younger audiences with classical music in unconventional ways—Hannah is deeply committed to the promotion and revitalization of the classical music scene.

  • Israel Gutiérrez Vildosola, born in 1996 in Chillán, Chile, received his first violin lessons at the age of nine from Carmen Gloria Meya at the “Claudio Arrau León” School of the Arts in Chillán.

    He has performed as a soloist with various orchestras in Chile, including the OSEM, the Chamber Orchestra of the Catholic University of Chile, and the Concepción Symphony Orchestra.

    He is currently studying music at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz with Eszter Haffner and Maighréad McCrann, and is proud to play an 18th-century violin by Michaelo Angolo. Israel has already participated in various competitions and festivals across Europe and the United States, performing in concert halls and venues in cities such as Lucerne, Bern, Vienna, Tokyo, Bogotá, Budapest, Belgrade, and at renowned festivals including the Davos Festival, Lucerne Festival, and Schleswig-Holstein Festival.

    He has received artistic inspiration and guidance from musicians such as Mayumi Seiler, Gerhard Schulz, Eva-Christina Schönweiß, Kurt Nikkanen, Fabio Biondi, Gregory Kalinovsky, and members of the Carmina Quartet and the Jerusalem Quartet.

  • Born and raised in Italy but with an international background, Ignazio Alayza graduated with distinction in 2014 from the Giacomo Puccini Conservatory in La Spezia, Liguria, where he studied viola with Fabrizio Merlini. He completed his master’s degree in 2017 with a specialized thesis on the composer Bohuslav Martinů. He went on to earn a second two-year master's degree with Gertrud Weinmeister at the MUK – Music and Arts University of the City of Vienna, where he currently resides.

    In addition to receiving coaching across Europe from violists such as Maxim Rysanov, the Zemtsov family, David Šlechta, and Milan Radič, from 2013 to 2018 he also gained teaching experience through a social project based on the Abreu system, aimed at children and adolescents from non-traditional family and social backgrounds in his hometown of La Spezia.

    He has collaborated with numerous European orchestras, including the EUYO – European Union Youth Orchestra (Italian tour 2020) and the Synchron Stage Orchestra (Vienna). In Italy, he has performed with the Filarmonica Pucciniana and the Sinfonica di Sanremo (where he also served as principal violist); in the Czech Republic, with the Filharmonie Brno (as an academy member and substitute) and the Filharmonie Hradec Králové (where he was a full member during the 2021/22 season). He currently holds the position of assistant principal violist (3rd chair) with the orchestra of the Vereinigte Bühnen Wien.

    As an active chamber musician, he regularly collaborates with musicians from various backgrounds, including Valentina Ciardelli, with whom he has also recorded two CDs.

  • After beginning his studies at the conservatoire of his hometown Granada, Spain, 1994 born cellist Antonio Gervilla furthered his studies at the Higher School of Music Musikene of the Basque Country under there guidance of Asier Polo and a master degree at Viennese MDW in the class of principal cellist of the Vienna Philharmonic, Péter Somodari, besides receiving classes on both Violoncello and baroque violoncello from renowned cellists such as Peter Bruns, Gary Hoffman, Lluís Claret, Gaetano Nasillo or Christophe Coin.

    At the moment he collaborates with professional orchestras such as Basque Country Symphony, Spanish Radio and Television, Spanish National and the Bilbao Symphony.

    He plays a cello by Martinus Stoss made in 1826.