Ensemble Kebyart

Here, four musical free spirits from Barcelona have come together to open up completely new instrumentation sound pages. Each of their performances promises to be a captivating production and their name says it all: the Balinese kebyar means something like "to suddenly flare up" or "to burst open"— a wonderful metaphor for the so energetic and highly virtuosic music-making of the four Spaniards.

The distinctiveness of Kebyart lies in their creative and open approach to the repertoire, which has several facets: original literature as well as their own arrangements of various styles are constantly expanded with new commissioned works such as Jörg Widmann's 7 Capricci (world premiere 2021 Philharmonie Luxembourg), the quartet Harmonia by David Philip Hefti (world premiere 2023 Tonhalle Zurich) or new quartets by Guillem Palomar and José Luis Turina which will be performed for the first time in the 2023/2024 season. They also enrich the sound of the saxophone quartet through their collaborations with outstanding artists such as Nicolas Altstaedt, Xavier Sabata, Dénes Várjon or the Cor Cererols. As soloists, they are guests with orchestras such as the Spanish Radio and Television Orchestra (ORTVE), Barcelona Symphony Orchestra (OBC), GIO Symphonia, Barcelona Wind Symphony and the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie.

The young musicians of Kebyart are currently a hot topic of conversation not only in their Spanish homeland, but are now also making themselves heard and talked about throughout Europe. As ECHO Rising Stars (European Concert Hall Organisation), Kebyart performed for the first time in the 2021/22 season at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, the Vienna Musikverein, the Paris Philharmonie, the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden and many other European halls. In the 2022/23 season, debuts were scheduled at Wigmore Hall London, Tonhalle Zurich, StadtCasino Basel, Mozarteum Salzburg and Heidelberger Frühling. For the 2023/24 season they have received invitations from the Philharmonie Essen, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Musikfestspiele Dresden and Musica Insieme Bologna.

Since the ensemble's beginning in 2014, the members of Kebyart have sought excellence through a relentless interest in their musical roots, with ESMUC (Barcelona) and Musik-Akademie (Basel) being their academic epicentres. Their commitment has led to to the message of music being continuously taught by some of the most renowned musicians and chamber music ensembles on an ongoing basis such as the Cuarteto Casals, Rainer Schmidt (Hagen Quartet), Hatto Beyerle (Alban Berg Quartet), Cuarteto Quiroga, bassoonist Sergio Azzolini, pianists Claudio Martínez-Mehner, Anton Kernjak and Kennedy Moretti and saxophonist Nacho Gascón.

They have been awarded several important chamber music prizes for their interpretations. Among them, the Swiss Orpheus Chamber Music Competition (Switzerland), the International Franz Cibulka Competition (Austria) and two of the most important prizes in their country: the Primer Palau, organised by the Palau de la Música Catalana, and the prestigious BBVA Chamber Music Prize. They have also been part of the European Chamber Music Academy (ECMA).

In April 2022, the saxophone quartet released its second studio album on Outhere-Linn Records entitled Lectures différentes— featuring the first recording of Péter Eötvös' quartet of the same name and their own arrangements of Stravinsky's "Pulcinella" and a classical quartet by Haydn. In autumn 2023, the new album Traum der Jugend was also released by Outhere-Linn Records with works by Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn, Bach and the world premiere recording of Jörg Widmann's 7 Capricci dedicated to the ensemble.

Kebyart celebrates its 10th anniversary in the 2024-2025 season! Highlights include a collaboration with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin (Glass Concerto), a recital at the Mozartwoche 2025 in Salzburg, a recital at the Philharmonie Paris, a 5-concert tour with the Junge-Deutsche Philharmonie through Germany, Luxembourg and Switzerland, and the 10th anniversary concert at the Palau de la Música, among other concerts this season.