The Danish String Quartet is made up of four extremely talented players: violinists Rune Tonsgaard Sørenson and Frederik Øland, violist Asbjørn Nørgaard and cellist Fredrik Sjölin. Here’s how they describe themselves:
"We are three Danes and one Norwegian cellist, making this a truly Scandinavian endeavor. Being relatively bearded, we are often compared to the Vikings. However, we are only pillaging the English coastline occasionally.
The three of us, the Danes, met very early in our lives in the Danish countryside at a summer camp for enthusiastic amateur musicians. Not yet teenagers, we were the youngest players, so we hung out all the time playing football and chamber music together.
We were regular Danish kids with an above average interest in classical chamber music. Quickly we became best friends and we still are. In 2001, professor Tim Frederiksen of The Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen got in touch with us and started coaching us on a regular basis, drilling us for hours in early Haydn quartets.
All of the sudden, at the ages of 15 and 16, we were a serious string quartet, practicing intonation and stuff. It all happened so fast that none of us seemed to notice the transition.
Time passed and we grew up. Grew beards. None of us have any memory of our lives without the string quartet.
In 2008 Norwegian cellist Fredrik joined in. He looked like a character from Game of Thrones, and we thought he was a perfect match. During his free time, Fredrik can be found fixing or sailing his OE32 sailboat somewhere in Scandinavia.
Other interests of the group include vintage cars, cooking, gaming, reading, playing, talking, scuba diving, playing tennis, and being dads of babies and toddlers. Yes, playing string quartets is our job, and yes it is hard work, but we mostly do it for pleasure, like we always did.
Music is a way to hang out with friends, and we hope we can continue to hang out for many, many years.”
