Damsco Quartet
The Damsco Quartet is an upcoming string quartet, based in Amsterdam. The four young musicians have only been playing together since 2022 which started out as a fun and challenging activity for people who shared a great love for chambers music and very shortly after starting playing together, they have stormed the stages. Their first performance at the Forbidden Music Regained festival was praised and was followed by a CD recordings of Henriëtte Bosmans' string quartet for Donemus publishers. These recordings will be launched on streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music and more. The quartet has lessons from Dmitry Ferschtman, Judith Van Driel and other teachers/professors of Conservatorium van Amsterdam. From 2023, Damsco quartet started their studies with NSKA under the mentorship of Marc Danel.
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“As a quartet, we embrace the belief that music serves as a universal language, uniting people across diverse cultures. This is reflected in our choice to play music from our
respective countries, celebrating and cherishing each other's cultural heritage.”
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Members
Nata Roinishvili
Violin
Nata’s adventure as a musician started when she only was four years old. As both her parents were musicians, music was not an unfamiliar thing. From her exceedingly early childhood, she practically grew up in the Opera house where her mother worked at that time - which meant attending all the rehearsals and performances.
At the age of seven, she started participating in competitions, auditions for different projects and festivals. On her big competition in Georgia, Tbilisi in 2007, she got a special prize and a certificate for the best participant of the competition. After this, she started taking part in the international competitions which included countries like Luxembourg, Lithuania, Azerbaijan, Germany, Switzerland etc.
She has also won first prizes and special awards through out the years for the best chamber performance.
She also performed different violin concertos with the symphonic orchestra every year - the most memorable of all was when she performed Brahms Violin Concerto in D major in the big hall of Tbilisi Conservatory while she was only 13 years old.
In 2018, she was admitted in Conservatorium van Amsterdam for bachelor’s degree in the class of Ilya Grubert and Kees Koelmans – later in her studies she decided to continue her violin lessons with Peter Brunt.
Daniel Leenders
Violin
Daniel, born 1998 in the Netherlands, began playing violin at the age of 3. Aged 8 he was accepted to the school of young talent of the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, and later at the Conservatory of Amsterdam, where he was taught by Coosje Wijzenbeek. He was later taught by Koosje van Haeringen in The Hague before he studied at the school of Young Talent at the Conservatoire Royal de Mons, Belgium, with professor Daniel Rubenstein. Daniel finished his bachelor studies at the Conservatory of Amsterdam with Peter Brunt and in the winter semester of 2019, he studied for half a year at the Boyer College of Music in Philadelphia with Dr. Eduard Schmieder. He is currently following the master program at the Conservatory of Amsterdam with Vera Beths.
Daniel regularly takes part in competitions and masterclasses. At the age of 7, he was a finalist at the composition competition initiated by the Dutch Wind Ensemble, with which he performed his own composition. As a violinist he won the Grand Prix at the Maassluise Muziekweek competition at the age of 11. In 2010 he won 1st prize at the regional rounds, and 2nd at the national rounds of the SJMN National Competition, plus the prize for the best interpretation of a Dutch piece. In October 2011, he won 3d prize at the Nedjalka Simeonova International Violin Competition in Chaskovo, Bulgaria. More recently, he was laureate of the Ilona Fehér International Violin Competition. Daniel also participates in masterclasses and festivals on a regular basis, where he had lessons with amongst others Eszter Haffner, Shmuel Ashkenasi, Hagai Shaham, Elina Vähälä, Stephan Picard, Liviu Prunaru, Olivier Charlier and Ulf Wallin. He has performed regularly with orchestras as a soloist. He was a soloist at the Davina van Wely Festival and at the International Chamber Music Festival of Almere with the Dutch Guitar Orchestra. Aged 17, he performed with the Orquesta Filarmónica de la Universidad de Alicante under Mihnea Ignat. Besides that, Daniel enjoys playing chamber music very much and has a lot of experience playing string quartets. He also substitutes in orchestras throughout the Netherlands.
Daniel plays on a violin by François-Louis Pique from 1797, previously played by Theo Olof, and playes with a bow from Charles Bazin. Both are on loan from the Dutch Musical Instruments Foundation (NMF).
Ida Weidner
Viola
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Ida Weidner (2001) started her viola studies in 2018 at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, first at the Sweelinck Academie and later in the bachelor with Marjolein Dipsa. She finished her bachelor at 2023 and around this time she joined the Damsco Quartet. During her studies she had masterclasses with Nobuko Imai, Timothy Ridout, Garth Knox, Lilli Maijala and Pauline Sachse among others. In 2021 she was a participant of the Cidnay International Masterclass Series, where she had lessons with Máté Szücs.
She gets her musical inspiration from playing together, both in orchestras and in smaller ensembles. Ida likes to perform for people who do not often come into contact with live music in their daily lives. That is why she is a member of the Ricciotti Ensemble, a street orchestra with which Ida played throughout the Netherlands, Cuba and Georgia.
Ida has joined Damsco Quartet since 2023.
Manon Leroux
Cello
Manon Leroux is raised in a musician family and start the cello at the age of 4 with Marie-Paule Milone. In 2010 she is the first price winner of the Vatelot Rempal cello competition in Paris. From 2011 to 2017 she studied with Veronique Marin Queyras and Helene Dautry at the conservatories of Rueil-Malmaison and Paris.
After four years studying with Pieter Wispelwey at the Conservatorium Van Amsterdam Manon graduated in 2021. She is currently doing her master degree with him.
She joined the European Union Youth Orchestra for their 2022 season. Since 2020 she is a member of the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester. Manon has the chance to be regularly invited as a substitute in the RFO (Radio Filharmonish Orkest)
Deeply passionate by chamber music, Manon had the chance to play and perform with several ensembles. She is a member of the ensemble “Le Bestiaire” and participate in every editions of the festival “Sanary en musique” organised by the collectif Fractales since 2015.
She had the opportunities to perform and be coached by artist such as Emmanuelle Bertrand, Gilles Apap, Kazimierz Olechowski, Frédéric Audibert, the Danel quartet, Luc Marie Aguera and many others. Beside this, she evolved under the precious advices of cellist like Philippe Muller, Roland Pidoux, Marc Coppey, Peter Bruns, Claudio Bohorquez, Konstantin Heidrich, Xenia Jankovic and Johannes Moser during different master class.
