The Sine Nomine String Quartet was founded in Lausanne (Switzerland) and has been composed of Patrick Genet and François Gottraux (violins), Nicolas Pache (viola) and Marc Jaermann (cello) since 1982. In 1985, the Quartet won the "Premier Grand Prix" of the international Concours d'Evian as well as the Press Jury Prize. In 1987, the Sine Nomine Quartet was a prize-winner at the first Borciani competition in Reggio Emilia.
Since then, the group has performed regularly in many major European and North American cities, appearing in many prestigious venues: Wigmore Hall in London, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Carnegie Hall in New York, the Milan Conservatorio, the Auditorio Nacional in Madrid, the Tonhalle in Zurich, the Salle Gaveau in Paris, the Alte Oper in Frankfurt and the Gewandhaus in Leipzig.
Sine Nomine is frequently invited to play at the leading European festivals such as the festivals of Vevey-Montreux, Lucerne, L'Orangerie de Sceaux, La Roque d'Anthéron, Radio-France/ Montpellier, Schleswig-Holstein as well as the Chamber Music Festival of Lockenhaus (Austria).
Ever since its first concert tour in 1992, the Quartet has regularly been invited back to the United States and Canada to play in various leading cities: Los Angeles, San Francisco, Vancouver, Montreal, Cleveland, Washington, Boston and New York.
Among those who left their mark on the Quartet's musicians, after Rose Dumur Hemmerling, who shared with them her passion for chamber music and made them aware of the grand tradition of string quartets, one encounter stands out - the one with the Melos Quartet, which encouraged them to compete in the 1985 Concours d'Evian and later invited them to play Mendelssohn's Octet on the occasion of its 25th anniversary, first in Stuttgart then in many other European cities.
Other leading figures have enriched the Quartet: Jean Hubeau, pianist, Paul Tortelier, cellist, Sofia Gubaidulina and Henri Dutilleux, who chose Sine Nomine to record "Ainsi la Nuit" (Erato), which then went on to win the prestigious "Diapason d'Or" award.
The Quartet likes to perform with other musicians in order to share its passion for chamber music: the pianists Jean-François Heisser, Michel Dalberto, Jean-Bernard Pommier, Bruno Canino, Philippe Bianconi; the clarinettists Michel Portal, Pascal Moragues and Thomas Friedli; Maurice Bourgue, oboe; François Guye, cello, and Rafael Oleg, violin and viola, with whom Sine Nomine recorded Brahms' two quintets for two violas (Claves).
Sine Nomine occasionally plays with jazz groups, such as the Modern Jazz Quartet and the Rogg-Maddeford piano duo.
The Sine Nomine Quartet has recorded extensively. Some examples are the complete quartets of Schubert (Cascavelle) and Brahms (Claves); in a less well-known repertory, Arriaga's three quartets (Claves), a recording that won the five "Diapason" award, and a selection of Turina's works (Claves). Furtwängler's piano quintet (Timpani) is one of the Quartet's most unusual recordings.
Sine Nomine has an enormous repertory, ranging from Haydn to Kurtág and including the great romantic and classical works, without neglecting rarer pieces such as Enesco's octet or the concertos for quartet and orchestra by Schönberg, Martinu and Schulhoff. The Quartet has premiered several contemporary works, most of which were composed especially for it (Balissat, Blank, Hosokawa, Hostettler, Wustin, etc.).
Along with their activities in the Quartet, the four musicians strive to pass on to their students at the Conservatories of Lausanne and Geneva one of the essential lessons of chamber music: to define their own identity while respecting the other members of the group.
The Sine Nomine Quartet receives financial support from the City of Lausanne and the State of Vaud. In addition, the Association des Amis du Quatuor Sine Nomine, founded in 1994, helps the Quatuor by giving it the means to develop its career, particularly abroad.
For further details, see Quatuor sine nomine - Lausanne