Quatuor Habanera are one of the world's leading saxophone quartets. Established in 1993, after study at Conservatoire de Paris

Conservatoire de Paris

The Conservatoire de Paris is a college of music and dance founded in 1795, now situated in the avenue Jean Jaurès in the 19th arrondissement of Paris, France...

, the quartet has won seven international prizes and recorded six albums. Their ability to adapt to varied musical styles is noted, recording contemporary music of Ligeti, Xenakis, Donatoni as successfully as earlier works by Glazunov, Grieg and Dvorak. Though formally classical musicians, they are all capable improvisers and have collaborated with many jazz musicians, most notably Louis Sclavis

Louis Sclavis

Louis Sclavis is a French jazz musician. He performs on clarinet, bass clarinet, and soprano saxophone in a variety of contexts, including jazz and free jazz...

 and klezmer clarinetist David Krakauer

David Krakauer

David Krakauer is an American clarinetist. He is a graduate of the High School of Music & Art, class of 1974. He is mostly known for his klezmer compositions. He became involved with klezmer music in the late 1980s while working as a classical musician, joining The Klezmatics...

.

Players

Soprano Saxophone - Christian Wirth

Alto Saxophone - Sylvain Malézieux

Tenor Saxophone - Fabrizio Mancuso

Baritone Saxophone - Gilles Tressos

International Prizes

1st Prize at the International Jean-Marie LONDEIX, Bordeaux 1996

1st Prix du Concours International de Musique de Chambre, Illzach 1997

1st Prix du 3ème Internationaler Musikwettbewerb für Junge Kultur, Düsseldorf 1997

1st Grand Prix du Concours International de Musique Française, Guérande 1997

1st prize in the Musical Sets Europeans Privas 1998

1st Prix du Concours International de Musique de Chambre "Gaetano Zigetti", Sanguinetto 1999

Grand Prix du 12ème Forum Musical de Normandie, 1996

Discography

Saxophone D'aujourd'hui et de demain (Concours International J.-M. Londeix, Bordeaux 1997)

Les révélations classiques (l'ADAMI 2000)

HABANERA - Quatuor de saxophones

Mysterious Morning (Alpha 010)

Grieg, Glazunov, Dvorak (Alpha 041)

L'Engrenage (Alpha 518)