string trio Eszká
What if music raises more questions than it answers? What if, each time you think you have understood it, it turns into a new mystery? What if a single note can appear in an entirely different light each time it is heard? What if, through its radical economy of means, the connection between just two notes could reveal more truth than thousands of notes elsewhere?
We - coming together from very different backgrounds and life experiences - understand György Kurtág's music as a bond, a ligature on countless levels. Not only because we ourselves are united by our love for its radical beauty, but also because it sees itself as a continuation of the Western musical tradition, drawing equally on Bach, Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven as on Bartók, Webern, and Cage.
What is the purpose of making music? In Kurtág's work, we find this question posed again and again. His music reflects the search for meaning in our own existence, just as every note seems to struggle for its right to exist.
Music begins where language fails. But what begins where a note ends? What happens when even melody fades away, when the voice itself falls silent?
In a world marked by increasing fragmentation, in a society that seems to divide into ever smaller groups closed off from one another, we see in Kurtág's music a counterpoint: a music in which every note carries existential weight, one that demands from us as performers the utmost clarity of intention at every moment, and in doing so invites all of us to listen.
It is in this spirit that we chose the name Eszká, inspired by Kurtág’s Eszká – emlékzaj (Memory Noise). It is not just a reference to a single work, but to a musical world that has profoundly shaped our way of listening. In this name, we recognise the living dialogue with Kurtág’s music that lies at the heart of our collaboration and continues to inspire our communication through music.
Nurit Stark
Winner of the 2023 Gramophone Award for Best Instrumental Recording, Israeli violinist and violist Nurit Stark enjoys an international career as a soloist, chamber musician, and advocate of contemporary music. The recording features solo works by Béla Bartók, Peter Eötvös, György Ligeti, and Sándor Veress. She received her musical training in Tel Aviv, Berlin, and Cologne with Haim Taub, Ilan Gronich, and the Alban Berg Quartet.
As a soloist, Stark has performed with leading orchestras including the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra, the Munich Radio Orchestra, the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra, the Symphony Orchestra of India, the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, and Filarmonica Transilvania. She has also appeared as guest concertmaster with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra.
A dedicated chamber musician, Stark has appeared at festivals including Lockenhaus, Schleswig-Holstein, Wien Modern, Donaueschinger Musiktage, Milano Musica, and West Cork. She has performed at major venues including Carnegie Hall, the Philharmonie Berlin, the Konzerthaus Vienna, and the Tonhalle Zürich. She has also appeared in experimental music-theatre productions at the Burgtheater Vienna, Volksbühne Berlin, MC93 Bobigny, and Gessnerallee Zürich, integrating the violin into interdisciplinary stage works.
Committed to contemporary music, Stark has premiered numerous works and collaborated closely with composers including Sofia Gubaidulina, György Kurtág, Peter Eötvös, Peter Ablinger, Carola Bauckholt, Manos Tsangaris, Georg Nussbaumer, Salvatore Sciarrino, Beat Furrer, Isabel Mundry, Jennifer Walshe, Daniel Rothman, and Valentin Silvestrov.
Stark has recorded extensively for BIS, Claves, and Genuin Records. Her recording of Kurtág’s Kafka Fragments with soprano Caroline Melzer received the German Record Critics’ Award in 2015. From 2019–2024, Stark was Professor of Violin at the Stuttgart State University of Music and Performing Arts and from 2022–2026 held a professorship at the Haute École de Musique de Genève. She plays a 1710 Pietro Guarneri di Mantova violin.
Yuko Hara
Yuko Hara is a violist born in New York, educated in Japan, and is today an established musician in Europe.
She graduated from the Tokyo University of Arts (Geidai), then continued her studies at the Haute Ecole de Musique de Genève with Nobuko Imai and at the Musikakademie Basel with Rainer Schmidt (Hagen Quartett). She participated in two orchestra academies - the Philharmonia Zurich and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen. Ms Hara has won prizes in international competitions and foundations such as the 9th Lionel Tertis Viola Competition (England), the Baseler Orchestergesellschaft Competition (Switzerland), the 5th Tokyo Music Competition, the International String Quartet Competition in Osaka, Matsuo and Aoyama Foundations (Japan).
Her musical world today ranges from solo to chamber orchestra, from historical historical performance practice of early music to freshly composed contemporary music, electronic music, improvisation and collaboration with the visual arts, playing baroque / modern viola and viola d'amore. As a member of Quatuor Ardeo in Paris, franz ensemble and Pulse in Bremen, Germany, Yuko regularly performs on stage at international festivals such as La Folle Journée (France, Japan, Russia, Israel), La Roque-D'antheron, Colmar (France), Davos, Murten, Müstair (Switzerland), Schwetzingen, Bremen, Gezeitenkonzerte, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Rottweil Sommersprossen, Kissinger Sommer, Heidelberger Frühling, Schleswig-Holstein (Germany), Aldeburgh (England) and West Cork (Ireland). Their recordings have been highly recognized by critics - Quatuor Ardeo’s latest recording “XIII” was rated as Supersonic on Pizzicato and Choc on Classica, among others. The franz ensemble won the prestigious Opus Klassik award for its debut CD in 2020.
Since 2017, Yuko Hara is artistic director of the Festival Hirondelle in the Auvergne region of France. The mission is to compose a meaningful program of chamber music with pieces chosen from different periods and styles in order to create a place where musicians connect with the public, all while savoring musical storytelling and the beauty of the region.
Sebastian Triebener
Sebastian Triebener (*2001) is a cellist, chamber musician, and composer whose artistic work focuses on contemporary music, chamber music, and historically informed performance practice. He is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Violoncello at the Stuttgart University of Music and Performing Arts with Conradin Brotbek and Tristan Cornut, having graduated with distinction from the same institution in 2024.
A dedicated chamber musician, he is a member of Trio Ava, winner of the 2025 Carl Wendling Competition. His concert activities have taken him to venues and festivals across Germany and abroad.
Contemporary music forms a central part of his artistic practice. He has collaborated with musicians and composers including Lucas Fels, Jan Kopp, Nicola Lutz, and Åsa Åkerberg, and participated in the Ensemble Recherche Academy and the Darmstadt Summer Course. He has performed at festivals such as ECLAT and SKAM and regularly works with emerging composers on the development of new works.
Alongside this, he is actively engaged with historical performance practice, collaborating with ensembles such as Accademia degli Affetti and Stiftsbarock Stuttgart, as well as members of the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra. As a composer, he co-developed the interdisciplinary project Echo-Chambers, premiered at the SKAM Festival Stuttgart in 2025.
The exploration of new sonic possibilities and a close engagement with musical sources from different periods lie at the heart of his artistic work.
For inquiries in Italy : Leonardo Finotti | +39 0425 600775 / +39 347 5216490 | info@leonardofinotti.it
© 2026 string trio Eszkà | Mentions Légales