Musical notes, leaving a lingering taste.
Dates, places, and the next encounter.
Premiere
Closing concert of the composition residency — a collaboration between the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes and the Beethoven-Haus Bonn. Free admission.
How the blend came together.
Four distinct voices, drawn together by a taste for the unexpected.
The players Pieter Jansen Veronique De Raedemaeker Tony Nys Francis Mourey
Bowmore Quartet is drawn to the string quartet's astonishing range, especially as it unfolds in the repertoire of the 20th and 21st centuries: music that can be raw or fragile, intense or almost silent, and sometimes all of that before the next page turn. In each score the quartet looks for a thread a listener can follow — without sanding off the music's edges.
The name comes from Luc Brewaeys' second string quartet, Bowmore — a piece named after an Islay whisky — and the piece that brought the four players together, in Belgium in 2025, for their first musical date. It stayed because the music stayed with them, and because serious work does not always need a straight face. The quartet opens its first season in 26–27.
Bowmore approaches contemporary music as part of a living tradition: every work was new once, and every score carries traces of its time, place and people. From Belgian masterpieces and late twentieth-century landmarks to world premieres and forgotten gems, the quartet brings this music into direct contact with listeners — especially when it refuses to behave.
The hands behind the sound.
Pieter Jansen studied at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp under Guido De Neve, earning a Master’s summa cum laude, and continued with Charles-André Linale, Raphael Oleg and Albrecht Breuninger. He specialised in chamber music with the Artemis Quartet at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel, was a member of Arsis4, Tana Quartet and Trio Khaldei, and is now primarius of Bowmore Quartet. Contemporary music has kept him happily overbooked since 2006: he is violin solo and co-artistic director of SPECTRA, and is also a member of the ensemble Multilatérale. Pieter is chamber music professor and coördinator at KASK & CONSERVATORIUM of the School of Arts Ghent.
Unofficial quartet role The Brain
Pieter Jansen Violin
Veronique De Raedemaeker is a Belgian violinist living in Cologne. After studies with Barnabás Kelemen, Mikhail Ovrutsky, Philipp Graffin and Alissa Margulis, she completed her Konzertexamen there in 2023, summa cum laude. A passionate chamber musician, she performs with Trio Gilu, Oreneta Kammerensemble, ÉRMA Ensemble and Duo Altiler. Her fascination for new music has led her to Unsuk Chin, Helmut Lachenmann and Heinz Holliger, so that the familiar never has time to settle. Veronique has released the following records under the label Etcetera: “Malinconia”, “Garland” and “Bach & Berio - a diptych”. She was featured as part of “De Twintigers” on Radio Klara in 2024.
Unofficial quartet role The Spirit
Veronique De Raedemaeker Violin
Tony Nys is a Belgian violist and professor who studied violin and viola at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels with C. Quatacker and P. Hirschhorn. From 2007 to 2018, he was first solo viola at La Monnaie and is regularly invited as guest soloist in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and the United Kingdom. His chamber music history includes the Fétis and Malibran quartets, the internationally acclaimed Quatuor Danel, TrioFenix, Ictus, Ensemble Modern and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra under Abbado, Dudamel and Boulez. He teaches viola and chamber music in Brussels, quietly disproving every viola joke on record.
Unofficial quartet role The Heart
Tony Nys Viola
Francis Mourey is a versatile musician. Cellist, organist and conductor, because choosing only one instrument would have been too simple. He graduated with a master’s degree with first-class honours from the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. Throughout his studies, he received invaluable guidance from Marie Hallynck, Mark Drobinsky, Edmond Baert and France Springuel, and won first prize at the international Servais competition. He is principal cellist of Boho Strings and a core member of Spectra Ensemble and Trio Khaldei, records for Canvas, Klara, Musiq3, EPR Classics, Etcetera and Paraty, and performs as cello soloist from the Belgian National Orchestra and Brussels Philharmonic to Les Métamorphoses. He teaches cello in Brussels, with just enough of a Belgian accent for his Frenchness to remain plausibly deniable.
Unofficial quartet role The French
Francis Mourey Cello
Cask notes, field notes, sometimes even wrong notes.
Stages, schemes, invitations.
Start a conversation.
Concerts, collaborations, commissions, press, repertoire ideas, or simply a question — tell us what you have in mind.
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