For the first time ever, one of the world’s leading classical music prizes, the Léonie Sonning Music Prize, is awarded to an ensemble rather than an individual artist. This year’s recipients are the four innovative and internationally acclaimed musicians who make up the Danish String Quartet. They are receiving the prize and 1 million DKK (about $150,000 USD) for having “created an original musical identity that serves as an inspiration to other musicians and unleashes musical energy beyond genres.” Since their debut 23 years ago, the members of the Danish String Quartet have established themselves as one of the world’s leading classical ensembles.

Past recipients of the prize include Igor Stravinsky, Miles Davis, Leonard Bernstein, Yo-Yo Ma, and most recently, Emmanuel Pahud, which puts the Danish String Quartet in extraordinarily distinguished company.  In addition, the prize comes with 1 million DKK, making it Denmark’s largest music award.

Esben Tange, Chairman of the Board of the Léonie Sonning Music Foundation, is excited about the groundbreaking nature of this year’s recipients and explains why this quartet is being honored:

“Besides being four outstanding instrumentalists, the Danish String Quartet is a unique musical collective with international influence. With a performance style marked by great authority and sensitivity, where classical chamber music, brand new compositions, and Nordic folk music are equally integrated, they have created an original musical identity that serves as an inspiration to other musicians and unleashes musical energy beyond genres.”

The members of the Danish String Quartet say:

“We are deeply honored and amazed to receive the Léonie Sonning Music Prize 2025. We are thankful and humbled. We see it as a great recognition for us, but also for chamber music in the broadest sense—this collective discipline, where you collaborate, communicate, seek out each other and the audience. Denmark is a chamber music powerhouse, and in the Danish String Quartet, we are just a part of a large environment consisting of amateurs, chamber music societies, music schools, passionate individuals, summer courses, young talents, and the current and former generations of amazing Danish chamber music ensembles.”

The quartet is also thrilled that the prize is being awarded to multiple individuals this time:

“This is the first time a collective has received the Léonie Sonning Music Prize. Thank you for this, and thank you for the recognition of Denmark’s chamber music heritage, a musical tradition that is more relevant today than ever before. We look forward to celebrating the prize in May and June of 2025, and we will do our best to ensure that chamber music continues to live and breathe in Denmark and across the world.” 

Experience the Danish String Quartet in May and June in Denmark

The extraordinary versatility of the Danish String Quartet can be experienced around Denmark in May and June of 2025. The quartet has curated a concert series that reflects their visionary approach, seamlessly crossing concert formats and musical genres.

Audiences can look forward to four intimate Gold Concerts, celebrating the traditional chamber concert in Svendborg, Aarhus, Roskilde, and Copenhagen.

Additionally, the Danish String Quartet will perform alongside actor Lars Mikkelsen (who played the Russian president in the Netflix series “House of Cards”) at the Bellevue Theatre in a brand-new musical theater performance, I Press Your Hands Warmly. This production, created by the quartet, is inspired by composer Dmitri Shostakovich’s letters and string quartets. The show will tour internationally in the coming years, and its world premiere will be part of the prize celebration.

At Refshaleøen, the quartet will host a day of celebrating Nordic folk music, featuring their own interpretation of the genre, along with performances by other folk music bands.

The Grand Prize Concert will take place on June 5 at the Concert Hall of the Royal Danish Academy of Music, where the prizewinners will be joined by the Danish National Symphony Orchestra and singers from the Danish National Girls’ Choir. The Danish String Quartet’s original breakthrough occurred in this very concert hall in 2004, when they, as teenagers, won the P2 Chamber Music Competition. 

The concert will consist of two parts: The first half will be a carefully curated journey through the history of the string quartet, while the second half will feature John Adams’ masterpiece Absolute Jest for string quartet and symphony orchestra.

Esben Tange commented on the concert series:

“We are excited and proud to celebrate the Danish String Quartet with a wide range of events across the country in May and June 2025. From intimate settings where the audience is gathered closely around the classical string quartet, to a celebration of folk music and a musical theater performance uniting music and words, to the Grand Prize Concert, where the Léonie Sonning Music Prize will be awarded, which bridges early music and the present day.”

Mr. Tange is also particularly pleased with the location for the grand prize concert:

“By choosing the Concert Hall of the Royal Danish Academy of Music for the prize concert, where the Danish National Symphony Orchestra and the Danish National Girls’ Choir will also participate, we connect with the academic environment that the Danish String Quartet emerged from and continues to inspire today.”

Kim Bohr, Ensemble Director at DR (Danish Broadcasting Corporation), says:

"From DR’s choirs and orchestras, we extend our enthusiastic and heartfelt congratulations to the Danish String Quartet on receiving the Léonie Sonning Music Prize 2025, and we are delighted to once again do our part to make the award ceremony a special event. In a musical collective, each musician is part of a larger whole, and in DR’s ensembles, we are especially pleased to see this year’s prize awarded to a group of people that so significantly manages to bring music to life by playing together so sublimely."

Two decades of accolades
The Danish String Quartet consists of Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen (violin), Frederik Øland (violin), Asbjørn Nørgaard (viola), and Fredrik Sjölin (cello). Until 2008, Carl-Oscar Østerlind was the ensemble’s cellist.

The quartet is known for its technical perfection, joy of playing, and innovative approach to programming and musical communication. They have won first prizes in numerous national and international competitions, including the P2 Chamber Music Competition (2004), Trondheim Chamber Music Competition (2005), and the London International String Quartet Competition (2009). Additionally, they have received the Carl Nielsen Prize (2011) and the Wilhelm Hansen Foundation Honorary Award (2015).

Twice, the quartet has been artist-in-residence at Denmark’s Radio (2006 and 2018). They have also been artist-in-residence at Lincoln Center in New York City (2013-2016) as participants in the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Bowers Program. They were a BBC New Generation Artist (2013-2015), and named Musical America’s ‘Ensemble of the Year’ (2020).

The quartet has an extensive recording catalog, and their recordings of Carl Nielsen’s string quartets (Dacapo, 2007 and 2008) won many awards, including being selected as an ‘Editor’s Choice’ by the influential international magazine Gramophone.

They followed this up with two albums of Nordic folk music: Wood Works (Dacapo, 2013) and Last Leaf (ECM, 2016). Both recordings were sensations in the international music world and won several awards, including Album of the Year 2017 on NPR and multiple P2 prizes. In August 2024, they released Keel Road (ECM), their third album focusing on folk music, which was recently selected for review in The New York Times’ “5 Classical Music Albums You Can Listen to Right Now.”

On the renowned ECM label, the Danish String Quartet released the recording project PRISM (2018-2023), a series of five recordings that present Beethoven’s late string quartets in a new context. The recordings have received numerous positive reviews and were nominated for a Grammy.

A hundred concerts a year in places like London, New York, and Berlin

The Danish String Quartet performs about 100 concerts annually at major international venues, including Wigmore Hall, Carnegie Hall, the Berlin Philharmonie, and the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg. The Quartet embarks on three tours across North America this season, with 24 tour stops around the US and Canada; details are available here. In 2020, the Danish String Quartet introduced the DOPPLEGANGER initiative, a multi-year commissioning project pairing world premieres by four composers -- Bent Sørensen, Lotta Wennäkoski, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, and Thomas Adès – with major quartets and quintets by Schubert, in collaboration with Carnegie Hall in New York City, Flagey in Brussels, and Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam. 

In addition, the quartet organizes classical concerts in Denmark, including their annual DSQ Festival, now in its 18^th year, and since 2016, they have curated the concert series entitled Series of Four. They are also ensemble-in-residence at the Royal Danish Academy of Music and have, since 2022, held the annual international music course, DSQ Academy in Kerteminde on Funen, where they actively contribute to shaping the musicians of tomorrow.

Read more about past recipients of the Léonie Sonning Music Prize, talent awards, and more at www.sonningmusik.dk.

Program for Danish String Quartet in May-June 2025

Gold concerts

• May 18: Svendborg, Borgerforeningen in collaboration with Svendborg Chamber Music Society
• May 19: Aarhus, Helsingør Theatre in collaboration with Aarhus Music Society
• May 20: Roskilde, Hotel Prindsen
• May 21: Copenhagen, Odd Fellow Palace in collaboration with Series of Four

Under the heading Gold concerts, the traditional chamber concert is celebrated from May 18-21, 2025. These four intimate concerts bring the audience close to the quartet and the music in some of Denmark’s most beautiful old chamber music halls: The Gold Hall in Svendborg, Helsingør Theatre in Aarhus, Prindsen in Roskilde, and the Odd Fellow Palace in Copenhagen. The concerts are organized in collaboration with local music societies, and the concert in Copenhagen is part of the quartet’s Series of Four. In connection with the Gold concerts, masterclasses are planned at the conservatories in Odense, Aarhus, and Copenhagen.

Musical theater performance with Lars Mikkelsen at Bellevue Theatre

• Performance: May 26

Letters and string quartets by Shostakovich form the basis for the musical theater performance I Press Your Hands Warmly. The text was developed by violinist Asbjørn Nørgaard with the Danish String Quartet handling the musical arrangement. Words and phrases from Shostakovich’s letters are crafted into a monologue, performed by Lars Mikkelsen in the role of Shostakovich. The monologue is accompanied by a sound collage featuring fragments and sections from the composer’s fifteen string quartets, creating a cohesive dramaturgical flow. This gripping performance offers an intimate portrayal of Shostakovich, unlike anything seen before. The music drama will premiere in collaboration with Bellevue Theatre on May 26, 2025, and will tour internationally in 2026-2027.

Tunes & Trads – a folk music celebration

• May 31 in Copenhagen, Pladeværkstedet, Refshaleøen
• 3 concerts, each one hour long

The Danish String Quartet has, for many years, arranged and programmed Nordic folk music alongside the great classical masterpieces. The quartet’s many critically acclaimed recordings of folk music, along with corresponding sheet music publications, have spread Nordic melodies around the world. On Saturday, May 31, 2025, the Danish String Quartet, together with two guest bands, will fill Pladeværkstedet (formerly part of B&W’s old shipyard on Refshaleøen) with folk music, dancing, and communal dining.

Prize Concert with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra and Danish National Girls’ Choir

• June 5 at the Concert Hall of the Royal Danish Academy
• 1st half: A curated journey through string quartet and music history
• 2nd half: John Adams’ Absolute Jest

The Danish String Quartet has curated a very special prize concert. The first half of the concert offers a curated musical journey from the Baroque to the most contemporary music. This progression will both illustrate the history of music and tell the Danish String Quartet’s own story. The quartet is a classical string quartet with Haydn and Beethoven at their fingertips, but they are also shaped by Danish culture and intellectual history – by Carl Nielsen, community singing, and folk high schools. The members of the quartet are also modern, versatile musicians who can effortlessly switch between different musical genres, and this ability will also be demonstrated in the concert. In the second half of the concert, the Danish String Quartet will take on the role of soloists with the Danish National Symphony Orchestraand perform John Adams’ Absolute Jest for quartet and orchestra: A modern masterpiece for string quartet and symphony orchestra, directly based on Beethoven’s legendary late string quartets from the 1820s