About us

The Otilka Quartet is a dynamic and international ensemble of four musicians from the Netherlands and Italy, founded in September 2020 at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam. The Otilka Quartet has quickly established itself as a promising ensemble in the chamber music scene.

The Otilka Quartet consists of: Iris van Nuland (violin I), Lucien Renette (violin II), Elin Haver (viola), and Stefano Bruno (cello).

Their studies began under the mentorship of renowned musicians including Dmitri Ferschtman, Peter Brunt and Ed Spanjaard. They are now receiving lessons from Judith van Driel (Dudok Quartet), and Sven Arne Tepl.

In february 2024, the Otilka Quartet participated in the IX International Music Competition Triomphe de l’Art in Brussels and won the second prize. The next year, they were awarded the 2025 Kersjesprijs from Het Kersjesfonds, one of Netherlands’ largest private music promotion funds. This prize consists of 50,000 euros to be spent on professional development and growth.

The Otilka Quartet has performed in most major halls of the Netherlands, including the Concertgebouw of Amsterdam, Tivoli Vredenburg Utrecht, and Muziekgebouw ‘t IJ. They also participated in festivals like Wonderfeel, Dudok Muziekdagen and the Storioni Festival and they have collaborated with the Dudok Quartet and Ruysdael Quartet.

Apart from the standard string quartet repertoire, the Otilka Quartet has a special interest in performing new music and that of the 20th century. Their repertoire includes works by Bartók, Webern, Ives and Schulhoff, and also modern compositions by Max van Platen, Ian Wilson and Jessie Montgomery.
They contributed to some revival of Dutch contemporary music, including works by Peter Schat, Ton de Leeuw, Sedje Hémon and many more. Currently they’re working on the string quartet cycle by composer Hans Henkemans, which was written in the early 1930s. Thanks to conductor Ed Spanjaard they were able to obtain the manuscripts of these unpublished scores, and are now the only quartet who have these pieces in their repertoire.

The Otilka Quartet is one of the post-graduate quartets of the Dutch String Quartet Academy (NSKA) under the guidance of Marc Danel (Quatuor Danel). Being part of this organization, they had the opportunity of working with Pierre Colombet (Quatuor Ébène), Nobuko Imai (Vermeer Quartet), Alan George (Fitzwilliam Quartet), Antti Tikkanen and Tomas Djupsjöbacka (Meta4), Luc-Marie Aguera (Quatuor Ysaÿe), William Coleman (Kuss Quartet), Gilles Millet (Quatuor Danel), Joris van Rijn and Michael Müller (Ruysdael Quartet) amongst others.
From 2026 onwards, the Otilka Quartet got admitted in a residency with the String Quartet Biënnale Amsterdam and MERITA (the biggest European platform for string quartets).

In 2026 their debut album ‘Nexus’ came out. The cd is a collaboration with saxophonist Ileana Termini and contains works of Guillermo Lago, Perry Goldstein and 2 new commissioned pieces by Lisa Wayreuther and Ian Wilson.

The name Otilka derived from String Quartet no. 2 by Josef Suk, which was the first piece the Otilka Quartet ever played. The main inspiration for this piece was Suk’s wife Otilka, who was also a composer, and the daughter of Antonín Dvořák.

The members of the Otilka Quartet play on the following instruments:
Iris van Nuland – Nicolò Amati (17th century)
Lucien Renette – Carlo Antonio Testore (c.a. 1740)
Elin Haver – Max Millant (1968)
Stefano Bruno – René Jacquemin (1925/1930)