After winning the International Joseph Joachim Competition in 2019, the Barbican Quartet is again enjoying great success. The London quartet won first prize in the prestigious ARD International String Quartet Competition (and a cash prize of €24,000) and the performance prize worth €1,000. "We cannot believe what happened last night!" the quartet wrote on their Facebook page, "Full of joy and gratitude, and unbelievably excited for what's to come!" As prize winners, they will tour Europe in March 2023, organized by Impresariat Simmenauer.

With performances of Bartók's Second String Quartet and Beethoven's Op. 59/2 'Razumovsky', Barbican became the big winner of this competition. In addition to the First Prize, they also won the prize for the best performance of the commissioned work The Ear of Grain written by Dobrinka Tabakova, the Henle Urtext Prize, the Gewa Prize and the Genuin Classics Prize for the release of their debut CD. The jury was chaired by Clive Greensmith and consisted of Anthea Kreston, Bjørg Lewis, Vera Martinez, John Myerscough, Jiří Pinkas and Oliver Wille.

The Barbican Quartet consists of Amarins Wierdsma (violin), Kate Maloney (violin), Christoph Slenczka (viola), Yoanna Prodanova (cello). Amarins Wierdsma successfully completed a bachelor's degree Violin at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam with Vera Beths in 2013.

Listen to the performances of the quartet in the final of the competition.