Tim Allhoff & Leonkoro Quartet
Biography Tim Allhoff & Leonkoro Quartet
Tim Allhoff
Award-winning pianist/composer Tim Allhoff is a significant constant in the German music scene. He has released seven albums, 2 of them being awarded the prestigious ECHO award. Initially focusing on jazz and working with the Tim Allhoff Trio for over ten years, he meanwhile developed into an artist of many colours, writing and playing jazz, classical and contemporary music. As a composer and arranger, his work runs the gamut from string quartet to an orchestra, music for theatre and International movie scores. His solo piano debut Sixteen Pieces for Piano, was released on Sony Classical in 2019. Recently, he also arranged and recorded parts of the critically acclaimed debut album, El Nour, with soprano Fatma Said.
His new album MORLA will be released in May 2022 and features mainly original music and works from Bach, Schumann, and Sufjan Stevens. Tim Allhoff played/arranged/worked with/for Larry Grenadier, Jeff Ballard, Robbie Williams, Fatma Said, Jules Buckley, the Vision String Quartet, Nils Wülker, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Filmorchester Babelsberg and Philharmonie München.
Leonkoro Quartet
The string quartet, founded in Berlin in 2019, could hardly be described more aptly than in the review published in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in January 2022.
The ensemble is framed by brothers Jonathan and Lukas Schwarz on first violin and cello, with Amelie Wallner on second violin and Mayu Konoe on viola providing the middle voices. Leonkoro, in Esperanto: Lionheart, alludes not coincidentally to Astrid Lindgren's children's book about two brothers, a book that juxtaposes the grave fact of dying with a large and heartfelt portion of consolation - a meaning the quartet's music is also dedicated to in not a few places.
In April 2022, the Leonkoro Quartet was crowned with the first prize and nine special awards at the Wigmore Hall String Quartet Competition. These included among others the prize for the best interpretation of a Haydn String Quartet, the prize for the best performance of a 19th century work, the Britten Pears Young Artists Programme Prize, the Leeds International Concert Series Prize as well as the prize of the Esterházy Foundation. Just a few weeks before the ensemble had been honoured with the sought-after and highly endowed Music Prize of the Jürgen-Ponto Foundation, which is awarded every other year to an outstanding string quartet.
Already in the summer of 2021, the Leonkoro Quartet got off to a brilliant start on the international stage when it became the youngest formation to be awarded second prize (first prize was not awarded) and the coveted Audience Prize at the highly renowned international string quartet competition Premio Paolo Borciani.
In the same year, the ensemble won first prize in the Chamber Music Competition of the Alice-Samter Foundation and was awarded second prize in the Ton und Erklärung competition of the Kulturkreis der Deutschen Wirtschaft.
The Leonkoro Quartet is coached intensively by members of the Artemis Quartett at the University of the Arts Berlin. The four musicians receive further artistic impulses from Alfred Brendel, Reinhard Göbel, Rainer Schmidt (Hagen Quartet), Oliver Wille (Kuss Quartet) and Luc-Marie Aguera (Quatuor Ysaÿe).
In addition to persuing their Master's degree in chamber music with Heime Müller at the Musikhochschule Lübeck, the quartet has been studying with Günter Pichler (Primarius Alban Berg Quartett) at the Chamber Music Institute of the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía Madrid since 2020 with the generous support of Santander Consumer Bank AG.
In the 2021/2022 season, the Leonkoro Quartet will play at the Laeiszhalle Hamburg, the Konzerthaus Berlin, the String Quartet Biennale of the Philharmonie de Paris, the String Quartet Festival in Heidelberg and the Rheingau Music Festival, among others.
The Leonkoro Quartet is a Pirastro Artist and is kindly supported by PE-Förderungen.
