meet the quartet
»Wojciech Garbowski violin (alternating)
»Emilija Kortus violin (alternating)
»Ian Anderson viola
»Konstantin Manaev cello
WOJCIECH GARBOWSKI violin
Violinist Wojciech Garbowski was born in Kraków. He studied violin and chamber music with Christoph Poppen, Dénes Zsigmondy and Eberhard Feltz in Mainz, Berlin and Munich. His artistic development was also shaped by musical encounters with Gidon Kremer, Rainer Kussmaul, Boris Pergamenschikov, Dave Douglas and Peter Brötzmann.
Through his many years of performing in various formations, he has devoted himself primarily to chamber music. From 2008 to 2011, he was first violinist of the Faust Quartet.
Since 2011, he has been a member of the Sonar Quartet. Garbowski is a regular guest with Ensemble Modern, MusikFabrik, Ensemble Phoenix, Ensemble Remix and others. He also works as concertmaster with the Berlin Chamber Players, the Deutsche Kammerakademie Neuss, Ensemble Resonanz and the Heidelberger Sinfoniker. He has performed at numerous festivals, including the Salzburg and Schwetzingen Festivals, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival and the Lucerne Festival. His repertoire extends from the Baroque to the present day and also includes free improvisation. In the field of new music, he has premiered works by, among others, Michael Wertmüller, Arnulf Herrmann and José-María Sánchez Verdú.
Wojciech Garbowski seeks out musical experiences that clearly push his boundaries and challenge him to the extreme—compromise bores him; he looks for friction and creative energy: “Improvisation is part of the way I engage with music. I translate musically whatever is occupying me at the moment. I like observing what emerges from the instrument.” He has become increasingly interested in performative music-making and therefore works with many directors. Highlights have included Christoph Marthaler’s production of Charles Ives’ Universe, incomplete at the Ruhrtriennale in 2018 and Karin Beier’s Kindeswohl at the Hamburg Schauspielhaus.
EMILIJA KORTUS violin
>>emilijakortus.com
Violinist Emilija Kortus is a Canadian-born musician of Serbian heritage based in Berlin.
She regularly performs throughout Europe as a soloist, chamber musician and concertmaster. Her repertoire spans the Baroque period to the present day, with a particular focus on both historically informed performance practice and contemporary music.
Born in Toronto and raised in Belgrade, Emilija Kortus began playing the violin at the age of four. From an early age, she won numerous prizes at national and international competitions and received scholarships from the Serbian Ministry of Youth and Sport and the Ministry of Culture and Sport.
Kortus studied at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade, the Hochschule für Musik und Theater “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy” Leipzig and the Zurich University of the Arts. Her formative teachers and musical mentors include David Takeno, Maria Spengler, Carolin Widmann and Ilya Gringolts. She received further important artistic impulses in masterclasses with artists including Antje Weithaas, Nemanja Radulović and Sergio Azzolini.
As a soloist and chamber musician, Emilija Kortus has performed at numerous concert series and festivals throughout Europe. She has worked with artists including Reinhold Friedrich, Dorothee Oberlinger, Ragna Schirmer and Sergio Azzolini. A particular focus of her artistic work is music of the 20th and 21st centuries. Alongside works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Niccolò Paganini and Eugène Ysaÿe, she regularly devotes herself to contemporary compositions and world premieres. In 2025, her album Dialogues – Works for Violin Solo, featuring works by Bach, Paganini, Ysaÿe, Miroslav Miletić and Jörg Widmann, was released by Prospero Classical.
At the same time, Kortus is deeply engaged with historically informed performance practice and the Baroque violin. She has performed with ensembles including Il Pomo d’Oro and Armonia Atenea and regularly works with a variety of orchestras and chamber-music formations. Her musical partners have included the Mendelssohn Chamber Orchestra Leipzig, the Kammerakademie Potsdam, the Munich Chamber Orchestra, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and the hr-Sinfonieorchester.
IAN ANDERSON viola
>>musicianderson.com
Composer and viola player Ian Anderson has worked directly with artists such as Anoushka Shankar, jazz guitar legend Lee Ritenour, and acclaimed electronic artist and poet Moor Mother. He is a member of many different ensembles, including Scottish Ballet (where he holds the position of Principal Viola), Wooden Elephant (extended string quintet which reimagines classic electronic-based popular music albums as contemporary classical concert works), yllwshrk (alternative/electronic rock, ‘yellow shark’, and Berlin-based contemporary string quartet Sonar Quartett.
Ian arranged Anoushka Shankar’s album Chapter III: We Return to Light for Shankar’s BBC Prom on 12th August 2025, where she performed her trilogy of mini albums with Robert Ames and the London Contemporary Orchestra. Also for the BBC Proms, Ian has contributed arrangements for Jordan Rakei and Jade, both with the Royal Northern Sinfonia.
Ian’s music has been soundtracked by AppleTV+ and Netflix, and has been performed by orchestras including Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, BBC Concert Orchestra, Komische Oper Berlin, Beethovenorchester Bonn, and members of Concertgebouw Orchestra.
In 2026 Ian reworked David Bowie’s last ever album Blackstar for Stuttgart Kammerorchester and jazz guitar legend Lee Ritenour for Stuttgart Jazz Festival – the second half of the concert comprising highlights from across Bowie’s career.
For the 24-25 Season, Ian was Artist in Residence of the Norwegian chamber ensemble, Munor, for whom he wrote the piano trio Marina’s Book of Munor, Vols. I & II – a set of 20 cross-genre miniatures inspired by The Marina Abramovic Method: Instruction Cards to Reboot Your Life.
Ian has fixed recording sessions for artists such as Grammy winning composer Hildur Guðnadóttir, electronic artist Oneohtrix Point Never, and film composer Freya Arde. He has acted as viola consultant for actor Marwan Kenzari (Aladdin, Black Adam) on his upcoming film Any Other Night.
He is also a regular performer with the London Contemporary Orchestra, with whom he has appeared on albums such as Radiohead’s A Moon Shaped Pool, Frank Ocean’s Blonde, Thom Yorke’s Anima and Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes, and The Smile’s Wall of Eyes and A Light for Attracting Attention.
Ian is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music in London (James Sleigh, undergraduate viola, First-Class Honours), and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow (David Fennessy, postgraduate composition).
KONSTANTIN MANAEV cello
>>konstantinmanaev.com
Konstantin Manaev is an internationally acclaimed cellist based in Berlin, performing as a soloist and chamber musician on renowned stages worldwide, including the Vienna Musikverein, Berlin Philharmonie, and Tonhalle Zürich. He studied with Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt and Ivan Monighetti.
A passionate advocate of contemporary music, he regularly collaborates with composers and explores new forms of musical expression. His recordings have received international recognition, including nominations for the International Classical Music Awards (ICMA) and OPUS KLASSIK.
Manaev is the founder and Artistic Director of the International Romberg Festival & Cello Competition, founder of the Berliner Kompositionspreis, and Artistic Director of the SONARLOFT concert series at Kühlhaus Berlin.