Press Release

After having spent twenty very successful years as primarius of the Leipzig String Quartet, Andreas Seidel for personal reasons and in complete agreement with the quartet has decided to step down from this position within the current year. We thank him for his excellent work that was formative for the ensemble’s artistic development and wish him every success for his personal life and his future artistic endeavors.
We are delighted that Leipzig violinist Stefan Arzberger has agreed to become our new primarius. After completing his studies at the Leipzig Hochschule fuer Musik Felix Mendelssohn Barthody, Stefan Arzberger joined the European Community Orchestra, and the Gustav Mahler Orchestra under Claudio Abbado. He further was a member of the Ensemble Leipziger Barock Solisten, was primarius of the Arzberger Quartett, concert master of the Leipziger Kammerorchester and the Sinfonietta Leipzig as well as the Orchestra of the Bayreuth Festival. His present position as assistant concertmaster of the Gewandhaus Orchestra emphasizes his many artistic qualities and thus promises an ideal continuation of the musical heritage and successful tradition of the Leipzig String Quartet. We are thus in a good position to offer a smooth transfer of the ensemble’s very large repertoire and performances that will ensure the quality the quartet has become known for worldwide. In this new formation, we will already offer concerts in Madrid as of the end of March 2008 and are scheduled for new recordings later in the year.

Listen, and you will hear!