The Groningen-based Minerva Quartet is a string quartet. Its members are:
Hanneke van Ulsen – violin
Oktje Lambermont – violin
Maaike ten Wolde – viola
Michelle van de Braak – cello
Minerva symbolises the divine power of knowledge, arts and crafts, resourcefulness, and wisdom. The ancient Etruscans acknowledged her as the one who gave everything useful and pleasurable to the civilised world.
In present times Minerva – musically speaking – stands for dynamic, expressive, divers, intellectual and inquisitive.
The Minerva Quartet plays repertoire from the early classical period up to contemporary music.
The Minerva Quartet also has taken part in special projects like the Somme 100 Noord project: 100-year old filmfragments shot in the days just before the Battle at the Somme were screened under accompaniment of live music. Also the beautiful Stabat Mater van Pergolesi, die 7 letze Worte van Haydn and the Gloria by Vivaldi were scheduled. Currently the Minerva Quartet also tours with a ‘concert/reading’ about the string quartet as fenomenon: an evening filled with information ànd live music.
The Minerva Quartet is being coached by the Prague Bennewitz Quartet.
From January 2022 onwards we finally launched a series of concerts throughout the Netherlands which were twice postponed due to the COVID pandemic. Main theme circles around the 75 years Peace Remembrance. Steve Reichs Different trains for string quartet and tape was one of the centrepieces on the program.