The Poiesis Quartet from Cincinnati has been named the winner of the 2025 Banff International String Quartet Competition (BISQC), securing more than half a million dollars in cash awards, residencies and touring opportunities.
The finals of the prestigious triennial competition took place Aug. 31 at the Banff Centre’s Jenny Belzberg Theatre, where three ensembles performed 45-minute programs of their choosing. The Poiesis Quartet emerged victorious over fellow finalists Arete Quartet from Seoul and Quartet KAIRI, based in Salzburg with members from Japan and China.
A career-defining prize package
As first prize laureates, Poiesis receives a CAD25,000 cash award, management and touring across North America with MKI Artists and in Europe with Konzertdirektion Hampl, a Banff Centre residency, and a recording residency. The package also includes the Southern Methodist University Peak Fellowship Ensemble-in-Residence Prize, worth CAD110,000, an Esterházy Foundation residency with concerts at Haydn Hall in Eisenstadt and the Lucerne Festival, and a potential two-week chamber music residency at Britten Pears Arts in England.
The quartet also collected the CAD4,000 Canadian Commission World Premiere Prize for its performance of Rapprochement by composer Kati Agócs.
Arete Quartet and Quartet KAIRI take second and third
Second place was awarded to the Arete Quartet from Seoul, which received CAD12,000, while third place and CAD8,000 went to Quartet KAIRI. KAIRI also took home the Haydn Prize of CAD4,000 for its first-round performance. All non-finalist quartets—Quatuor Elmire, Viatores Quartet, Nerida Quartet, Quartett HANA, Cong Quartet and Quatuor Magenta—each received a Christine and David Anderson Prize of CAD5,000.
Poiesis Quartet’s rapid rise on the international stage
Founded by violinists Sarah Ying Ma and Max Ball, violist Jasper de Boor and cellist Drew Dansby, the Poiesis Quartet has quickly gained international recognition. They were awarded the 2023 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition Grand Prize, the 2024 Concert Artists Guild Competition, and the BIPOC Prize at the 2023 St. Paul String Quartet Competition. They have also performed internationally, including in Uruguay and at Italy’s Emilia Romagna Festival.
Currently the graduate quartet-in-residence at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Poiesis studies with the Ariel Quartet. The ensemble’s members are graduates of Oberlin Conservatory, where they trained under Sibbi Bernhardsson of the Pacifica Quartet and the Verona Quartet. They released their debut album in 2024 featuring world-premiere recordings of works by Clint Needham and Richard Stout.
A legacy of BISQC winners
The BISQC jury included Eckart Runge, Marie Chilemme, Jonathan Crow, Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt, Honggang Li, Eugene Drucker and David Ying.
Since its founding in 1983, BISQC has launched the careers of several leading ensembles. Past winners include the Isidore Quartet (US, 2022), Marmen Quartet (UK) and Viano Quartet (Canada/US, 2019), the Rolston Quartet (Canada, 2016), Dover Quartet (US, 2013), Cecilia Quartet (Canada, 2010), Tinalley Quartet (Australia, 2007), Jupiter Quartet (US, 2004), Daedalus Quartet (US, 2001), Miró Quartet (US, 1998), and the St. Lawrence Quartet (Canada, 1992).