The
Keller Quartet specializes in contemporary music and especially in programs that juxtapose contemporary and traditional repertory. In the recording studio, the group has had a long association with the
ECM label.
The
Keller Quartet was formed in 1987 by violinists
András Keller and
Zsófia Környei, violist Gábor Homoki, and cellist
Otto Kértész, all of whom were students at the Franz Liszt Music School in Budapest.
Kértész was later replaced by László Fenyö, but otherwise, the group's membership has remained stable.
Keller was a student of composer and pianist
György Kurtág, and the group went on to work closely with
Kurtág on several projects. In 1990, within a four-week span, the quartet won the Evian International String Quartet Competition and the second Borciani International Competition, and the group's career was launched. The
Keller Quartet has performed in major European capitals, as well as at such top British venues as Wigmore Hall and the Royal Albert Hall. The group has been especially visible at festivals, including the venerable events in Salzburg and Montreux. The group is committed to new music and generally performs two or three new works each year, often combining traditional and contemporary repertory in unusual programs such as "
Bach/
Kurtág," in which works of the latter are interspersed among the movements of
Bach's The Art of Fugue.
The
Keller Quartet made its recording debut in 1995 on the Apex label with a cycle of Bartók's string quartets. The group has recorded mostly for the
ECM label in its New Series, issuing a program of quartets by the seemingly divergent
György Ligeti and Samuel Barber there in 2013. The quartet has also recorded Romantic repertory, releasing a
cycle of Tchaikovsky's quartets on Apex in 2009. In 2021, the
Keller Quartet joined guitarist
Ferenc Snétberger for the recital album
Hallgató on
ECM.