Founded in the autumn of 1994, the Zehetmair Quartet embarked upon its first concert tour in spring 1998. Their success resulted in re-engagements by all the promoters, followed by invitations to the United States (2001 and 2003) and Japan (2002) to complement the Quartet’s annual European tours.

In the summer of 2004 the Zehetmair Quartet was a guest at the Edinburgh Festival, the Helsinki Festival, the Schleswig Holstein Musik Festival and others. In 2004 the Zehetmair Quartet gave a masterclass in Bern and further masterclasses are planned for the following years.

Their first CD - featuring Bartók‘s Quartet No. 4 and Hartmann‘s Quartet No. 1 - was released in 2000 on the ECM label and was awarded the Quarterly Prize by the Deutsche Schallplattenkritik. Their latest release, Schumann‘s String Quartets No. 1 and No. 3 (also recorded on the ECM label), won the Gramophone Award (Record of the Year), the Diapason d’Or of the Year, the Dutch Edison Classical Music Award 2004, the Belgian Caecilia Award and the Klara Award for the best international production of the year.

The members of the Zehetmair Quartet rehearse a new programme each year, under a conception which generally envisages rarely-performed masterpieces (e.g. by K. A. Hartmann, S. Veress) in combination with the more standard repertoire.