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The Škampa Quartet of Prague is recognized as one of today’s most exciting string quartets.  Founded in 1989 at the Prague Academy of Music, they soon received international attention when they won the “Best Quartet” prize at the  Premio Vittorio Gui competition in Florence, the “Best Debut 1993" award from England’s Royal Philharmonic Society and shortly after became the first-ever Quartet-in-Residence at London’s famed Wigmore Hall.  In addition to their annual performances at Wigmore Hall, they also appear in major centers throughout the world, including the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Musikverein and the Konzerthaus in Vienna, the Edinburgh Festival, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Prague’s Dvorák Hall, and Lincoln Center, the  92^nd Street Y, and Carnegie Hall in New York. 

The quartet has a dozen recordings on the Supraphon label, including a “Pick of the Month’ in BBC Music Magazine and a winner of the “Best Chamber Music Recording” from the number one Czech classical music magazine, Harmonie. Their recordings of the quartets by Janacek and Smetana are often quoted as the bench-marks against which other performances are judged.  The Škampa are among the elite artists whose performances have been selected for release on the Wigmore Hall Live label. Education has long been an important and rewarding facet of their work; in addition to their 2001 appointment as Visiting Professors of Chamber Music at the Royal Academy of Music in London, they regularly include residency activities along with performance. The Škampa’s Spring 2013 U.S. tour brings them to Washington DC, Philadelphia, and New York City, including their return to Carnegie Hall.