Norway’s Engegård Quartet Announces New Second Violinist

Spanish violinist Laura Custodio Sabas is now a permanent member of the string quartet 

Laura Custodio Sabas has joined the Engegård Quartet as its second violinist, succeeding Alex Robson, who played with the quartet since 2012. Formed in 2005, the group also comprises violinist Arvid Engegård, violist Juliet Jopling, and cellist Jan Clemens Carlsen. 

For the past six years, Sabas has been the second violinist of the Fitzroy String Quartet — performing internationally in festivals in the UK, Germany, Poland, France, Spain, and South Africa.

With Fitzroy, she gave her debut recital in Wigmore Hall in 2018 and won prizes at the 2017 International Beethoven Chamber Music Competition, the 2018 Tunnell Trust Award, and first place at the 2020 Royal Over-Seas League Competition. 

A graduate of the UK’s Purcell School for Young Musicians and Royal Academy of Music, Sabas studied with Igor Petrushevski, Levon Chilingirian, and participated in regular masterclasses with Maxim Vengerov. For chamber music, she studied with Oliver Wille, Christoph Richter, Krzystof Chorzelski, and Jonathan Brown.

As an orchestral musician, Sabas has performed with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, London Mozart Players, Glyndebourne Opera Orchestra, Orquesta de Cadaques, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, English Touring Opera, and the Pacific Music Festival Orchestra. Sabas also performs regularly with the Mitsu Trio, which she formed in 2020.

“[Sabas inspires] us with her lovely personality, her commitment, presence, musicality and joy of playing and is also a great resource in the practical side of quartet life,” wrote the Engegård Quartet. “We feel honored and immensely lucky that she has chosen to dedicate her musical future to the Engegård Quartet and can hardly wait to introduce her to our audience!”

An award-winning ensemble, the Engegård Quartet has collaborated with musicians including András Schiff, Leif Ove Andsnes, Christian Ihle Hadland, and Emma Johnson. The quartet also has an extensive discography, with their recent CD releases including Mozart’s “Prussian Quartets” and the complete string quartets of Robert Schumann.