Pere Méndez, Soprano saxophone
Víctor Serra, Alto saxophone
Robert Seara, Tenor saxophone
Daniel Miguel, Baritone saxophon

The four talented musicians of the saxophone quartet Kebyart not only share a passion for chamber music, but also a desire to bring a breath of fresh air to classical music. Here, four musical free spirits from Barcelona have come together to open up completely new instrumentation sound pages – and each of their performances promises to be a captivating production. Their name says it all: the Balinese “kebyar” means something like “suddenly flare up” or “burst open” – a wonderful metaphor for the so energetic and highly virtuosic music-making of the four Spaniards.

The distinctiveness of the experimental Kebyart lies in its creative and open approach to the repertoire, which has several facets: original literature as well as its own arrangements of a wide variety of styles are constantly expanded with new commissioned works, such as Jörg Widmann’s “7 Capricci” from 2021 and the world premiere of David Philip Hefti’s quartet “Harmonia” in February 2023. They also enrich the sound of the saxophone quartet through their collaborations with outstanding artists such as Nicolas Altstaedt, Xavier Sabata or Dénes Várjon and as soloists with orchestras such as the Spanish Radio and Television Orchestra (ORTVE), GIO Symphonia or Barcelona Wind Symphony.

The young musicians of Kebyart are currently a hot topic of conversation not only in their Spanish homeland but are now also making themselves heard and talked about throughout Europe.
As part of the ECHO Rising Stars (European Concert Hall Organisation) in the 2021/22 season Kebyart performed for the first time at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, the Vienna Musikverein, the Paris Philharmonie, the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden and many other European halls. The 2022/23 season will see important debuts at Wigmore Hall London, Tonhalle Zurich, StadtCasino Basel, Mozarteum Salzburg and Heidelberger Frühling, as well as a return invitation to the Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona.

Since the ensemble’s beginnings in 2014, Kebyart’s members have sought excellence through a relentless interest in musical roots, with ESMUC (Barcelona) and Musik-Akademie (Basel) as their academic epicentres. Their commitment to the message of music has led them to receive ongoing instruction from some of the most renowned musicians and chamber ensembles such as Cuarteto Casals, Rainer Schmidt (Hagen Quartet), Hatto Beyerle (Alban Berg Quartet), Cuarteto Quiroga, bassoonist Sergio Azzolini, pianists Claudio Martínez-Mehner, Anton Kernjak and Kennedy Moretti, and saxophonist Nacho Gascón.

They have been awarded several important chamber music prizes for their interpretations. Among them, the Swiss Orpheus Chamber Music Competition (Switzerland), the International Franz Cibulka Competition (Austria) and two of the most important prizes in their country: the Primer Palau, organised by the Palau de la Música Catalana and the prestigious BBVA Chamber Music Prize. They have also been part of the European Chamber Music Academy (ECMA) since 2018.

In April 2022, the saxophone quartet released its second studio album on Outhere Linn Records entitled “Lectures différentes” – with the first recording of the quartet of the same name by Péter Eötvös, but also with their own arrangements of Stravinsky’s “Pulcinella” and a classical quartet by Haydn.

Kebyart is a guarantor for modern performance in the best sense and for amazing listening experiences. They like to break the barrier between the audience and the performers and offer commentary between the works for the better understanding of the music.

As ambassadors of the brands, Kebyart plays Selmer Paris saxophones and Vandoren accessories.

Season 2022-2023