Since winning First Prizes at the London and Brahms-Hamburg competitions, Quartetto Casals, which was founded in 1997 at the Escuela Reina Sofía in Madrid, has been a continual guest at the world’s most prestigious concert halls including Carnegie Hall, Philharmonie Berlin, Cité de la Musique Paris, Konzerthaus and Musikverein in Vienna, Concertgebouw Amsterdam and Suntory Hall among many others. Quartetto Casals is approaching its 25th anniversary season which it will celebrate with a recording and series of concerts featuring the complete ‘Art of the Fugue’ by Johann Sebastian Bach and highlights of recent seasons include a cycle of the complete late Mozart quartets at the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin, John Adams ‘Absolute Jest’ with the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra and tours throughout Europe and North America.

A prize from the prestigious Burletti-Buitoni Trust in London enabled the quartet to begin a collection of matching Baroque and Classical period bows which it uses for works from Purcell through Schubert, refining its ability to distinguish between diverse musical styles. In addition, the quartet has been profoundly influenced by its work with living composers, especially György Kurtág, and has given the world premiere of quartets written by leading Spanish composers, including a concerto for string quartet and orchestra by Francisco Coll, premiered with the Orquesta Nacional de España and commissions by Mauricio Sotelo, Benet Casablancas, Dahoud Salim, Lucio Amanti, Aureliano Cattaneo, and Matan Porat.

In recognition of its unique contributions to the cultural life within Catalunya and throughout Spain, Quartetto Casals has been acknowledged as cultural ambassadors by the Generalitat of Catalunya and the Institut Ramon Llull.

Born in Barcelona in 1980, ABEL TOMÀS began his musical studies with his father and the violin with his uncle. Later he was a student of Zakhar Bron and Serguei Fatkouline at the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía and of Viktor Tretjakov at the Hochschule für Musik in Cologne.

Abel has been awarded prizes at various national and international competitions in Spain and Argentina. As soloist he has appeared with various orchestras including Orquesta Sinfónica de Barcelona and Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerife and with distinguished conductors such as James Judd, Junichi Hirokami, Victor Pablo Perez and Zubin Mehta. He has given numerous violin recitals, collaborating with pianists like Juan Carlos Garvayo, Orli Shaham, Eldar Nebolsin, and Hyo-Sun Lim. As a chamber musician, he has also appeared with Gerard Caussé, Marta Gulyas, Seguro Ito and Kennedy Moretti.

At sixteen years of age, he Abel was a founding member of the internationally recognized Cuarteto Casals, a chamber music ensemble which maintains a full calendar of artistic activity, appearing in the most renowned halls in Europe, Latin America, the United States and Japan. Since 2004 the quartet has recorded exclusively for Harmonia Mundi for whom they have recorded numerous works. The quartet has been awarded the Spanish National Music Prize and the Prize of the City of Barcelona.

Together with his brother Arnau Tomàs Realp and pianist Hyo-Sun Lim, Abel is a founding member of the Ludwig Trio, with whom he has recorded music of Beethoven, whose Triple Concerto the trio will soon record with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia.

Aside from concertizing, Abel teaches violin and chamber music at the Escuela Superior de Música de Catalunya, and additionally gives masterclasses in both Europe and the United States.

Vera Martinez was born in Madrid, where she began to study the violin at age five. Upon turning twelve, she entered the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofia, where she studied with Professors Serguei Fatkouline and Zakhar Bron, with whom she finished her studies at the Hochschule für Musik Köln. Concurrently, as a member of Cuarteto Casals, she received a special chamber music degree under the tutelage of the Alban Berg Quartet.

A prizewinner at many competitions, Vera has performed as a soloist with various orchestras in Europe and South America, under the batons of conductors including Zubin Mehta, Yehudi Menuhin, Daniel Harding, and Paavo Järvi, amongst others. In addition, Vera leads many projects in chamber orchestras as concertmaster-conductor. She also is periodically invited as concertmaster in various orchestras and collaborates in chamber music concerts with many artists, amongst others with her brother, pianist Claudio Martínez Mehner, with whom she performs duo recitals. 

Vera is a founding member of the Cuarteto Casals and has subsequently performed in the most important halls throughout Europe, North America, Latin America, and Asia. The quartet records exclusively for the Harmonia Mundi label, where she can be heard playing first and second violin on more than 20 different recordings.

Vera is currently Professor of Chamber Music and Violin at the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya and teaches as well Chamber Music at the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole and the Royal Conservatory in Den Haag. She is often invited to teach masterclasses around the world and serve on chamber music juries in Europe and North America.

Born in Madrid, Spain in 1998, Cristina Cordero started playing the viola at 5 years old, and continued her studies with Diemut Poppen at the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía in Madrid. She subsequently earned her Bachelor’s degree in 2020 from the University of Music and Performing Arts in Munich under the tutelage of Hariolf Schlichtig. Later, she pursued her Master's studies with Professor Nobuko Imai, once again at the ESMRS. Other influential mentors during her artistic development include professors Jonathan Brown, Wenting Kang, and Heime Müller. 

She is a top prizewinner of several international competitions, including the First Prize and Juventudes Musicales de España Award at the El Primer Palau Competition and the First Prize at the International Chamber Music Competition Gerhard Vogt. She has also performed as a soloist with orchestras, such as Orquesta Sinfónica de Barcelona y Nacional de Cataluña, Orquesta Filarmónica de Castilla La Mancha, Orquesta de Cámara Andrés Segovia, Orquesta Sinfónica de Cuenca in Ecuador, Orquesta Filarmónica del Desierto in Mexico and Orquesta Sinfónica Freixenet.

Passionate about chamber music, Cristina performs regularly across Europe in different formations and has been a guest artist at numerous prestigious festivals, including Verbier, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Schloss Elmau and Krzyzowa-Music, where she has had the honor of collaborating with world-renowned musicians such as Gary Hoffman, Viviane Hagner, Daniel Stabrawa and Nobuko Imai.

Her creative spirit has led her to find new ways to broaden her instrument’s repertoire and bring original ideas to modern audiences. Collaborating with pianist Juan Barahona, they have created the multidisciplinary project "Romeo & Juliet: a Story in Music” that has been premiered in 2021 at the Palau de la Música de Barcelona and already presented in numerous venues across Spain and South America.

Born in Barcelona, Arnau Tomàs is nowadays recognized as one of the most versatile cellists of his generation, combining solistic projects with an intense chambermusic activity, being the founder of the Cuarteto Casals and the Ludwig Trio.

Prizewinner in several National and International Competitions, gave numerous cellorecitals and appeared as soloist with the Orchestras Radiotelevisión Española, Sinfónica de Tenerife, OSV, Sinfónica de Galicia and OBC, among others. In 1992, he participated in a televised masterclass with Yo Yo Ma in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, focusing on the suites for solo cello by J.S.Bach. He is regularly invited in the most important festivals and concertcycles and he will take part in the Cellobiennale of Amsterdam in 2018.

Arnau Tomàs has compiled a substantial and extensive discography with repertoire ranging from the Baroque Period until 20th century, with more than 15 cds. Specially remarkable are his recordings of the Bach Suites (2014) and the sonatas and variations by Beethoven (2016), in both cases he used historical bows of the composition’s period.

In addition to his concert activities, Arnau has been Guestprofessor at the Hochschule für Musik Köln and has given various masterclasses and courses both in Europe as well as the United States.