The Eliot Quartett was founded in 2014 and has become one of the most engaging string quartets of its generation. Hailing from Canada, Germany and Russia, the quartet’s members formed the group in Frankfurt am Main and have since gone on to win prizes at major national and international music competitions, including second prize at both the Mozart International Competition in Salzburg and the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition, the Prize of the German Music Competition as well as three additional special prizes, and first prize and the special prize for the best interpretation of a piece by Karol Szymanowski at the inaugural International Karol Szymanowski Competition in Katowice, Poland.
The Eliot Quartett has established itself as a cornerstone of the music scene in its hometown of Frankfurt, Germany. In addition to appearances at the Alte Oper, the Polytechnische Gesellschaft concert series and the Schumann Gesellschaft, the Eliot Quartett is a regular guest at the Holzhausenschlösschen in Frankfurt and founded its own festival ‘Eliots am Main’ in 2022.
The Eliot Quartett’s concert schedule includes performances at renowned festivals and concerts series throughout Europe. It has performed at the Bachfest Leipzig, the Kasseler Musiktagen, the Mozartfest Würzburg, the Rheingau Musik Festival, the Shostakovich Tage, the Festival Musica Sur and Delta Chamber Music Festival in Spain, the Styriarte in Graz, the Mozarteum Salzburg and the Schubertiade.
The four musicians began their chamber music instruction with Prof. Hubert Buchberger and went on to study with Prof. Tim Vogler at the Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst Frankfurt am Main and with Prof. Günter Pichler at the Instituto Internacional de Música de Camera at the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía in Madrid. The Eliot Quartett has received valuable musical guidance from Valentin Erben, Oliver Wille, Martin Beaver, and the Mandelring Quartet and enjoys a close working relationship with the esteemed pianist Alfred Brendel and the Belcea Quartet.
The Eliot Quartett is named after the American poet T. S. Eliot whose famous work “Four Quartets” was inspired by the innovative late Quartets by Ludwig van Beethoven. Eliot, like Beethoven, attempted to establish a connection between past, present and future by breaking away from the accepted classical forms of the time.
The Eliot Quartett has released several recordings on GENUIN classics.
Maryana Osipova (1st Violin) was born in 1987 in Moscow into a musical family and is a graduate of the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory where she studied with Prof. Marina Keselman and Prof. Maya Glezarova. She currently studies with Prof. Laurent Breuninger at the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe. Maryana has enjoyed success at several international violin competitions, winning third prize at the 2013 Yankelevich Violin Competition in Omsk, and sixth prize at the 4th China International Violin Competition in Qingdao in 2014. As an avid chamber musician, Maryana has won prizes at the Vainiunas Competition in Vilnius in 2010, the London International Chamber Music Competition in 2010, and the Premio Vittorio Gui in Florence in 2011. Maryana attended masterclasses with Boris Kuschnir, Mihaela Martin (Kronberg Academy Masterclasses), Igor Ozim (Weimarer Meisterkurse), and Boris Belkin (Accademia Chigiana). She has performed at the Homecoming Festival in Moscow (2007—15), the Moscow Conservatory Youth Festival (2010—13), Svyatoslav Richter’s Festival in Tarusa, Oleg Kagan’s Festival in Moscow, and at the International Festival in Togliatti, where she premiered Polina Nazaykinskaya’s violin concerto. She has collaborated with musicians such as Boris Andrianov, Kristina Blaumane, Nikita Borisoglebsky, Boris Brovtsyn, Alexander Buzlov, Maxim Rysanov and Alexander Sitkovetsky and can be heard in Maxim Rysanov’s recording of Brahms’s Clarinet Quintet on the Onyx label. Maryana Osipova holds a scholarship from the Oscar und Vera Ritter foundation.
Alexander Sachs (2nd Violin) was born in 1990 in Vancouver, Canada. He began his musical education at the Vancouver Academy of Music and took violin lessons with Prof. Taras Gabora. From 2008 to 2012, Alexander Sachs studied at the Hochschule für Musik Mainz with Prof. Anne Shih and from 2012 to 2016 at the Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst Frankfurt am Main with Prof. Sophie Jaffé. He has attended masterclasses with Prof. Rainer Kussmaul, Prof. Tanja Becker-Bender and Prof. Gerhard Schulz (International Musicians Seminar in Prussia Cove, England). In 2011, Alexander received the Neumeyer Consort Scholarship for Baroque music and has performed with the ensemble throughout Germany (Göttinger Händelfestspiele, Magdeburger Telemanntage, Forum Alte Musik in Frankfurt). As a member of the Goethe String Trio, he was selected in 2011 to the Yehudi Menuhin Live Music Now Frankfurt e.V. Foundation. After completing a practicum with the 2nd violins in the Staatsorchester Darmstadt, Alexander spent a year in the 1st violins on a temporary contract. Since 2014, he holds a teaching position at the Emanuel Feuermann Conservatory at the Kronberg Academy.
Dmitry Hahalin (Viola) was born in 1988 and studied at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory as well as the Hochschule für Musik Mainz with Prof. Anne Shih. He then made the switch to viola and studied with Prof. Roland Glassl at the Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst Frankfurt am Main. Dmitry received a scholarship from the International Vladimir Spivakov Charity Foundation as well as the Neumeyer Consort scholarship for baroque music. He was selected in 2013 to the Yehudi Menuhin Live Music Now Frankfurt am Main e.V. foundation. As a chamber musician, Dmitry won the 1st prize at the 2010 S. Vainiunas Competition in Latvia as well as the Chamber Music Prize of the Polytechnische Gesellschaft 2013 and has worked with Eduard Brunner, Nils Mönkemeyer, Manuel Fischer-Dieskau and the Talich Quartet. Since 2010, Dmitry has devoted more time to the field of historically-informed performance, completing a master’s degree in Baroque violin with Prof. Petra Müllejans. He has performed at the Telemann-Festtagen Magdeburg, the Göttinger Händelfestspielen and the Forum Alte Musik Frankfurt am Main and has worked with Ton Koopman, Konrad Junghänel, Michael Hofstetter and Andreas Scholl. Dmitry was selected as a scholarship recipient of the Villa Musica Rheinland-Pfalz in 2014.
Michael Preuß (Violoncello) was born in 1985 in Leipzig. He began his musical education as a pre-college student at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Leipzig. Michael studied at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Rostock with Prof. Joseph Schwab and at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Frankfurt am Main, where he completed his Diplom and Konzertexamen in 2015. As an orchestral musician, he was a member of the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, and has held training positions with the Staatsorchester Darmstadt and the Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin. He also held temporary contracts with the Sinfonieorchester des Staatstheater Giessen as principal cellist and with the MDR Sinfonieorchester in Leipzig. As a member of the Helenos Quartett, Michael won the Chamber Music Prize of the Polytechnische Gesellschaft and 1st prize at the “Cours et Concours” at the Villa Musica Rheinland-Pfalz. He also won 1st prize at the “HMT Interdisziplinär“ at the HMT Rostock as well as the Peter Pirazzi Foundation competition. Michael has attended masterclasses with Gustaf Rivinius, Wen-Sinn Yang, Gerhard Schulz, the Tokyo String Quartet, the Mandelring Quartett, and the Verdi Quartet.