Antti Tikkanen, violin

Minna Pensola, violin

Atte Kilpeläinen, viola

Tomas Djupsjöbacka, cello

Meta4, formed in 2001, is one of the internationally most successful Finnish string quartets. In 2004 it won the first prize in the International Shostakovich Quartet Competition in Moscow, and was also awarded a special prize for best Shostakovich interpretation. The quartet enjoyed continued success in 2007, when it won the first prize in the International Joseph Haydn Chamber Music Competition in Vienna. Later that year the Finnish Minister of Culture awarded Meta4 with the annual Finland Prize in recognition of an international breakthrough. Meta4 was selected as a BBC New Generation Artist for 2008-2010.
Meta4 performs regularly in key music capitals and concert halls around the world, for example in Vienna (Wiener Konzerthaus), London (Wigmore Hall and King's Place), Madrid (Auditorio Nacional), Paris (Cité de la Musique), Stockholm (Stockholms Konserthus) and Shanghai. Furthermore, Meta4 served as the Artistic Director of Oulunsalo Music Festival between 2008 and 2011 and is a quartet-in-residence at the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival since 2008.
The quartet has studied in the European Chamber Music Academy (ECMA) under Hatto Beyerle and Johannes Meissl. They have previously released two recordings on Hänssler Classics: Haydn's String Quartets op. 55 1-3 (2009), which was awarded with the esteemed Echo Klassik Award 2010, and Shostakovich's String Quartets 3, 4 & 7 (2012), which received the Record of the Year 2012 award by the Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE as well as was awarded with the Emma prize (the Finnish Grammy) in the category of the Classical Album of the Year.
The members of Meta4 play distinguished instruments, which include a Stradivarius, kindly on loan from the Pohjola Bank Art Foundation, as well as an Antonio & Hieronymus Amati violin from 1618 and a cello made by Lorenzo Storioni in Cremona in 1780.