Chamber music success in Canada
Quartet Kairi honored with HfK alumnus Yu Mita (violin)
The Kairi Quartet, featuring HfK alumnus Yu Mita (violin), was awarded third prize (CAD 8,000 plus residency including coaching and mentoring) and the R.S. Williams & Sons Haydn Prize at the Banff International String Quartet Competition (BISQC). This prize is worth $4,000 and is awarded for the best performance of a Haydn quartet in Round 1.
Congratulations on this success!
The ten best quartets were selected for participation in a preliminary video round, and the finalists were determined after an intensive concert week with four rounds.
The Kairi Quartet is currently based in Salzburg, where they study at the Mozarteum with Prof. Rainer Schmidt (Hagen Quartet) and Prof. Sibrán Sierra Vásquez (Cuarteto Quiroga).
Yu Mita first studied in Prof. Katrin Scholz's class for his Master of Music degree and then completed his concert exam at the HfK Bremen in June 2025 with an acclaimed performance of Leonard Bernstein's Serenade for Violin and Orchestra. The video can be viewed here.
The BISQC performances can be viewed on the competition's homepage and are also available on The Violin Channel and Vimeo.
The BISQC competition is one of the most prestigious and important competitions for string quartets worldwide. It was founded in 1983 as part of the 50th anniversary of the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. The University of Calgary is located in Banff, a small Canadian town situated at an altitude of 1,400 meters on the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains, in the heart of Banff National Park in the province of Alberta.
