Praised for their warm sound and commanding stage presence, the Esmé Quartet has quickly established itself as one of the most captivating chamber ensembles of its generation. Formed in 2016 in Cologne, Germany, by four Korean musicians and lifelong friends, the quartet is driven by a deep artistic connection and a shared passion for music and the arts.

The ensemble garnered international acclaim after winning First Prize and four special awards at the 2018 Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition in London. That same year, they were named HSBC Laureates of the Académie du Festival d’Aix. Additional honors include top prizes at the Trondheim International Chamber Music Competition, the Possehl Musikpreis Lübeck, and the inaugural Hans Gál Prize by the Academy of Sciences and Literature Mainz and Villa Musica Germany.

The Esmé Quartet has performed at major venues and festivals across Europe, North America, and Asia, including the Lucerne Festival, Wigmore Hall, Opéra de Lille, L'Auditori Barcelona, Hong Kong Arts Festival, and the Aix-en-Provence Festival. They were the first Artists-in-Residence at Lotte Concert Hall in Seoul for the 2020–2021 season and have appeared in residencies at the McGill International String Quartet Academy, Classic Esterházy, and the Heidelberg String Quartet Festival.

In recent seasons, the quartet made acclaimed debut tours of North America, Japan, and Australia. Highlights include performances of John Adams’ Absolute Jest with the Hong Kong Philharmonic, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra (with John Adams conducting), and Gyeonggi Philharmonic. Their collaborations also include a multimedia project, ‘The book of water’ by Michel van der Aa and British actor Samuel West at the Hong Kong Arts Festival and a North American tour with Van Cliburn Gold Medalist Yekwon Sunwoo.

The quartet’s discography on Alpha Classics includes To Be Loved (2020), named one of the best classical albums of the year by WQXR as well as five stars review by Diapason, Yessori: Sound from the Past (2023), and a 2024 Apple Music Classical Sessions EP of Mendelssohn’s Op. 13. A third album celebrating their 10th anniversary will be released in 2026.

Belgian-American violist Dimitri Murrath joined the ensemble in 2023, succeeding founding member Jiwon Kim.

In the 2025–26 season, the Esmé Quartet will be based in San Francisco as ensemble-in-residence with San Francisco Performances, where they will present a complete Schubert quartet cycle in collaboration with noted musicologist and host Robert Greenberg. Concurrently, the quartet members will serve as visiting artists and faculty at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. The season also features the quartet’s highly anticipated New York debut at The Frick Collection, continued tours across North America and Europe, and will culminate in a special 10th anniversary celebration concert at the Seoul Arts Center in June 2026.

The quartet has worked closely with esteemed mentors including Günter Pichler, Oliver Wille, Eberhard Feltz, Christoph Poppen, Jonathan Brown, and Heime Müller. 

Their name, Esmé, derives from the Old French word for “beloved”.