Le rêve d'Ariane

The Alfama Quartet, founded in 2005 in Brussels, aims to establish itself on the Belgian and international scene by developing a high quality musical style, in line with the aspirations of its members and a coherent and demanding artistic vision. In addition to exploring the vast repertoire for string quartet, the Alfama Quartet defines itself by its openness to collaboration with other artists in the musical and theatrical field.

The Alfama Quartet has performed in many prestigious international venues and festivals, including: Bozar, deSingel, the Luxembourg Philharmonic, the Ambronay Festival, the Cité de La Musique, the Paris Philharmonic, Flagey, the Musée d'Orsay, the Stavelot Festival, the Bordeaux Opera, the Dijon Opera, the Alcobaça Festival, Espinho in Portugal, the Rouen Opera, Resurrexit in Lithuania, Sonntagsmusik in Linz, Racinotes in Switzerland,…

The Royal Chamber Orchestra of Wallonia invited the quartet to perform as a soloist with the orchestra for the concert "La nuit dans tous ses états". The Alfama Quartet has also collaborated with pianists Julien Libeer, Boyan Vodenitcharov, Guillaume Coppola, Nathanaël Gouin, Florian Noack, and Guillaume Vincent; cellists Marie Hallynck, Karel Steylaerts, and Camille Thomas; violist Tony Nys; and singers Jodie Devos and Albane Carrère.

Their CD Still Schubert (Cypres, 2019), having been acclaimed by national and international press and received an ‘Octave de la musique’, the quartet decided to record a new album titled ‘So Far So Close’, dedicated to Schumann and Mendelssohn. This album also includes a creation by Patrick Leterme. So Far So Close was released in February 2023 under the label Cypres.

The actress Ariane Rousseau and the Alfama Quartet created ‘Le Rêve d'Ariane’ in 2011, a fine and playful show in which young and old alike can discover the history and evolution of the string quartet through the centuries. Since its creation, Le Rêve d'Ariane has been performed more than 250 times in front of nearly 100,000 children. In 2015, the same team wrote a second show, a tale for children entitled "Pomme-Henriette", which was created at the Philharmonie du Luxembourg and repeated in the programme of the Philharmonie de Paris as well as at the Opéra de Bordeaux. Following this success, a third family show was created, ‘Fanny and Felix’, based on the Mendelssohn siblings, and produced by the Festival de Wallonie (in French) and deSingel in Antwerp (in Dutch). The three family shows were translated and produced in both languages.

In 2017, accordionist Anne Niepold and the Alfama Quartet created ‘Lalala', a warm concert full of finesse, nostalgia and humour. Anne Niepold's arrangements and compositions combine well-known French songs with pieces from the classical repertoire for string quartet.

In 2023, this successful partnership led to a new project: NORD—a musical journey through Scandinavia, Greenland, Russia, and other rarely explored lands, filled with themes that warm both fingers and hearts. Written by Anne Niepold, the show brings together classical, traditional, world, and pop music.

In 2024, the quartet embarked on a new collaboration with pop-folk singer LYLAC for Letters, a cross-over program centered on romantic correspondence. The project combines The Juliet Letters by Elvis Costello and the Brodsky Quartet, Intimate Letters by Leoš Janáček, newly composed miniatures by Jean-Luc Fafchamps, and songs by LYLAC—creating an expressive dialogue across styles and eras.

Finally, in autumn 2025, the Alfama Quartet will premiere Coppélia, a new large-scale family production directed by Liesbet Vereertbrugghen and featuring actor Lucas Tavernier. It tells the poetic tale of a dreamer watchmaker in love with a life-sized mechanical doll, in a world where imagination breathes life into the inanimate.

The quartet was taught by Walter Levin of the Lasalle Quartet, Rainer Schmidt of the Hagen Quartet, Heime Müller and Natalia Prischepenko of the Artemis Quartet, Eberhard Feltz and members of the Danel Quartet.

The Alfama Quartet is supported by La Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles.

Alice Van Leuven, violin
Caroline Denys, violin
Morgan Huet, viola
Renaat Ackaert, cello

May 2025