The Alfama Quartet, founded in Brussels in 2005, has established itself in the Belgian and international music landscape through a high-quality musical style and a coherent, demanding artistic vision. In addition to exploring the extensive string quartet repertoire, the quartet also stands for fruitful collaborations with artists from both the music and theater worlds.

The Alfama Quartet performs in prestigious international concert halls and at festivals such as Bozar, deSingel, Philharmonie de Luxembourg, Festival d'Ambronay, Cité de La Musique, Philharmonie de Paris, Flagey, Musée d'Orsay, Festival de Stavelot, Opéra de Bordeaux, Opéra de Dijon, Festival d'Alcobaça, Espinho in Portugal, Opéra de Rouen, Resurrexit in Lithuania, Sonntagsmusik in Linz, Racinotes in Switzerland…

Following the success of the CD 'Still Schubert', released on the Cypres label and awarded an Octave de la musique, the quartet released a new album, 'so Far so Close', in February 2023, dedicated to Schumann and Mendelssohn, also featuring a composition by Patrick Leterme.

The Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie invited the quartet to perform with them as soloists in the concert 'La nuit dans tous ses états'. The Alfama Quartet also collaborated with pianists Julien Libeer, Boyan Vodenitcharov, Guillaume Coppola, Nathanaël Gouin, Florian Noack, and Guillaume Vincent; cellists Marie Hallynck, Karel Steylaerts, and Camille Thomas; violist Tony Nys; and singers Jodie Devos and Albane Carrère.

Together with actress Ariane Rousseau, the Alfama Quartet wrote Le rêve d'Ariane in 2011. This delightful, playful performance is aimed at young and old alike and is the ideal opportunity to discover the history of the string quartet. Le rêve d'Ariane has now been performed nearly 250 times for more than 100,000 spectators.

In 2015, the quartet wrote a second children's production, Pomme-Henriette, with the same partner. It premiered at the Philharmonie du Luxembourg and was revived at the Philharmonie de Paris and the Bordeaux Opera, among others. Fanny et Felix is the Alfama Quartet's third family production, about the Mendelssohn family, in a co-production of the Festival de Wallonie (in French) and deSingel (in Dutch). The three family productions have been translated and are playing in both languages.

In 2017, accordionist Anne Niepold and the Alfama Quartet created Lalala, a concert program full of finesse, nostalgia, and humor, ranging from well-known French chansons arranged by Anne Niepold, to original compositions, and pieces from the classical string quartet repertoire.

In 2023, this collaboration grew into a new project: NORD. A musical journey towards Scandinavia, Greenland, Russia… little-explored regions, rich in themes that warm heart and hands. Under the pen of Anne Niepold, classical music, traditional music, world music, and pop meet.

In 2024, the quartet started a new collaboration with pop-folk singer LYLAC for Letters, a crossover program centered on love correspondence. The project unites The Juliet Letters by Elvis Costello and the Brodsky Quartet, Lettres Intimes by Leoš Janáček, new miniatures by Jean-Luc Fafchamps, and songs by LYLAC — an intense and expressive conversation between styles and eras.

Finally, in the spring of 2026, the Alfama Quartet creates Coppelia, a new major family production directed by Liesbet Vereertbrugghen and starring actor Lucas Tavernier. A poetic story about a dreamy watchmaker who falls in love with a lifelike mechanical doll, in a world where imagination gives life to the inanimate.

The quartet took masterclasses with Walter Levin of the LaSalle Quartet, Rainer Schmidt of the Hagen Quartet, Heime Müller and Natalia Prischepenko of the Artemis Quartet, Eberhard Feltz, and the members of the Quatuor Danel.

The Alfama Quartet enjoys the valued support of the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles.

 

 

August 2026