The Van Dingstee Quartet was founded by the two violinists, Ingrid van Dingstee and Marjolein van Dingstee and cellist Ewout van Dingstee, all members of the same family. Helena van Tongeren joined the quartet as violist in 1997. The Van Dingstee Quartet has quickly built a successful career. Concert tours have taken the quartet across the Netherlands and through Europe and the United States. The richly varied repertoire includes compositions from all compositional periods. The quartet attaches special importance to regular performances of Dutch compositions.
The Van Dingstee Quartet released CD’s with recordings of string quartets by Haydn, Pijper and Shostakovich (2003) and the Clarinet Quintet of Mozart (with Céleste Zewald, clarinet, 2006). The quartet also recorded the "London String Quartet" by the Dutch composer Jan van Amerongen and the String Quartet in g minor by Claude Debussy. These CD’s were highly acclaimed by press and audience and were broadcast several times on radio. Several radio and television broadcasts were made with the Van Dingstee Quartet, including a TV production of one of their concerts by the Austrian broadcasting company ORF.
The Van Dingstee Quartet won several prizes. In 2004 it won the Ondine Records Prize at the Kuhmo International Chamber music Competition in Finland. It also won First Prize (Thomastik-Infeld Prize) at the 2002 String Quartet Competition of the International Summer Festival Prague-Vienna-Budapest in Austria and both Second Prize and the Bärenreiter Prize at the International Chamber Music Competition Charles Hennen in 2001. In the press the quartet has been consistently praised for its wide range of sound colours, harmonious play, commitment, and passion.
The quartet participated in master courses given by members of renowned string quartets, including Norbert Brainin and Siegmund Nissel (Amadeus Quartet), Günter Pichler (Alban Berg Quartet), Sandor Devich and Laszlo Mezö (Bartók Quartet), Milan Škampa (Smetana Quartet), Earl Carlyss and Raphael Hillyer (Juilliard Quartet), Thomas Brandis (Brandis Quartet), Stefan Metz (Orlando Quartet), Nicholas Kitchen (Borromeo Quartet) and Paul Katz (Cleveland Quartet). From 2001 till 2003 the Van Dingstee Quartet studied at the Dutch String Quartet Academy in Amsterdam.
Since 2003 the quartet cooperates with the Foundation "Nederlandse Strijkkwartetten", a collaboration of several prominent Dutch string quartets that organizes concert series all over the Netherlands. Besides the elaborate series of concerts the quartet plays, it is also involved in educational projects. In collaboration with music schools and other organizations, the quartet organizes chamber music courses for both children and adults. The quartet also plays special school concerts and presents lectures about the string quartet and string quartet playing.
The Quartet’s instruments include the first violin (Nicola Gagliano, Napoli 1739) which is on loan from the Dutch Nationaal Muziekinstrumenten Fonds, and second violin (presumed Joh. Th. Cuypers, The Hague 1750), viola (Max Möller I, Amsterdam 1948), and violoncello (Joh. Th. Cuypers 1787), which are on loan from violin maker Eduard van Tongeren’s collection of Dutch String Instruments.
The Van Dingstee Quartet is supported by: Prins Bernard Cultuur Fonds, ThuisKopie Fonds, Kersjes Fonds, Stichting Algemeen Muziekfonds, Stichting John Kasander, Haarlems Muziek Fonds and the Netherland-America Foundation. The US concert tour of the Van Dingstee Quartet in March 2006 was financially supported by the Netherland-America Foundation.
