GoYa Quartet

“As their mysterious and thrilling opening lines resonated, the four ladies became miraculously intertwined and their dialog began. Instant emotion. Captivating.”

— Klassiek Centraal, article

“They achieved pure physical exhilaration throughout from holding lines firmly and seamlessly [...] with total musical engagement and balanced so that you could hear every note in every part without losing any sense of the whole.”

— Bachtrack, article

Autumn Leaves

In November 2024, the GoYa Quartet released their debut album, Autumn Leaves, under Dutch label Gutman Records. This heartfelt project explores the theme of nature by combining music, literature, and visual art. It features a selection of exquisite works, including Debussy’s String Quartet, Grieg’s String Quartet No. 1, Imogen Holst’s Phantasy Quartet, and Takemitsu’s arrangement of Autumn Leaves. The album also includes an exclusive booklet, which contains an essay by Dutch author Ruben Jacobs and artwork by Rosa Meertens, who also designed the cover. The recording is based on a live concert at the Waalse Kerk in Amsterdam. The project emphasizes the quartet’s dedication to environmental awareness and gender equality, with a special focus on female composer Imogen Holst.

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The album features the following pieces:

Claude Debussy (1862-1918): String Quartet in G minor, Op. 10
Imogen Holst (1907-1984): Phantasy Quartet
Edvard Grieg (1843-1907): String Quartet No. 1 in G minor, Op. 27
Tōru Takemitsu (1930-1996): Arrangement of Autumn Leaves (Joseph Kosma)

The theme of our CD is Nature, and our aim is to give it a voice through three distinct art forms: music, literature, and visual art. This recording is based on a live concert held on May 18, 2024, at the Waalse Kerk in Amsterdam, featuring a carefully curated selection of pieces that evoke a deep connection with nature and our relationship to it.

Dutch artist Rosa Meertens has created an exclusive painting for the CD cover, inspired by "Autumn Leaves." Additionally, we commissioned a new essay from Dutch author and nature guide Ruben Jacobs, exploring the relationship between nature and music, aligning with our mission to raise awareness about urgent environmental issues — matters that impact us all.

Alongside our interpretation of two iconic masterpieces — Debussy’s and Grieg’s String Quartets — we are excited to highlight lesser-known gems, such as Imogen Holst's Phantasy Quartet, furthering our commitment to gender equality by by performing works from a female composer who deserves wider recognition.

Lastly, we are proud to present Takemitsu's arrangement for string quartet of the timeless "Autumn Leaves" by Joseph Kosma, in a version that has never been recorded before.

"What freedom and devotion! There is no room for pretense with the GoYa Quartet. Debussy’s classic is loving and cultivated, but not overly polished; the sixteen strings radiate with Grieg’s exuberance, and the pastoral quality in Holst’s music is heartwarming. We are touched by that profound authenticity in a performance. (…) Here, music is created out of necessity, with heart and soul, because the music needs to be played, and the musicians must be heard."

“Their interplay is fresh, pure, concise, energetic, refined, sometimes intimate, romantic, or daring, and always full of life and imagination. It’s as if they want to make a powerful statement: the world may be in chaos, but we never give up, embodying positive energy, action, and beauty."

“The GoYa Quartet gives a wonderful interpretation of these works. Autumn Leaves is not just a CD with a commentary; rather, it is the other way around—a bound booklet with a CD inside. (...) Altogether, it forms a beautifully cohesive whole.”

“The shimmering of the timbres, combined with the pulse, the rhetoric, and the shared diction of the musicians, make each piece a breathtaking monodrama.(…) As for Debussy and especially Grieg, they are thrust into a completely new and free realm, where the body is lifted.“

"The four voices are in perfect balance, and through an intricate use of all vibrato gradations and a profound musical instinct, this is a jewel of a discographic debut."

“The remarkable overall result was made possible thanks to the uncommon cohesion of the musicians and their unity of purpose, qualities that also fully emerged in the other works included in this CD, including the one that gives the entire journey its title, Autumn Leaves, which is imbued with a subtle melancholy and a widespread twilight atmosphere. The rendition of the more complex and intricate Phantasy Quartet by Holst was also very successful. This composition is marked by frequent contrasts, as well as being inspired by English folk music and the pastoral landscape—features appropriately highlighted by the performers through an admirable care for sound and dynamics, which fully enhanced a highly multifaceted score.”

Live recording during the Beethoven Festival Online of the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam

About us

The GoYa Quartet, formed in 2014, is composed of Sylvia Huang, Hani Song, Saeko Oguma, and Honorine Schaeffer. Hailing from Belgium, Switzerland/South Korea, Japan, and France, this cosmopolitan ensemble brings together a unique blend of cultures, with its base in Amsterdam.
The musicians initially crossed paths in the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, where Hani, Saeko, and Honorine are still currently playing. In 2022, Sylvia Huang became Concertmaster of the opera orchestra La Monnaie in Brussels. Their orchestral experience deepens their quartet performances and fuels their pursuit of a rich, dynamic sound.

They have been invited to perform in some of the most prestigious venues in the Europe, including the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, TivoliVredenburg in Utrecht, Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ, Theater aan het Vrijthof in Maastricht, Flagey in Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts in Charleroi, the Brussels Royal Conservatory, and the Philharmonie in Essen. They have also been featured at renowned festivals such as the Quartz International String Quartet Festival, Société Royale Midi Liège, the Festival Proquartetto in Belgium, Festival de Quatuor à Cordes en Pays de Fayence...

The quartet has collaborated with celebrated musicians, including the Danel Quartet, Olivier Patey, Calogero Palermo, Simon van Holen, and Emily Beynon.

Their versatile repertoire spans the classical elegance of Haydn and Schubert to the expressive modernity of Britten and Bartók. In November 2024, they released their debut CD, Autumn Leaves, with the Dutch label Gutman Records. The album has already garnered widespread acclaim from the Dutch press, earning 5 stars and a "Cum Laude" rating from Luister. Lex Bohlmeijer described it as "entrancing... it is of unbearable beauty; likely one of the most beautiful albums of the year."

Sylvia Huang

Hani Song

Saeko Oguma

Honorine Schaeffer

Sylvia Huang

Appreciated for her "true lyricism and her touching musicality, her simplicity and her sensitivity", and delivering a "wide color palette" (Le Soir), the Belgian violinist Sylvia Huang is described as a “moving and honest” musician with a “rich sound” (De Standaard). In 2019 she became laureate of the Queen Elisabeth International Competition and won the two audience prizes: the Musiq'3 Prize and the Canvas-Klara Prijs. She also received the Caecilia Prize of the Young Musician of the Year 2019 by the Union de la Presse Musicale Belge.

She made her debut with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in February 2021 playing Mozart Violin Concerto K.218 with Andrew Manze, which she also performed in July 2021 with Iván Fischer and the RCO at the Konzerthaus in Berlin during the official state visit of the King and Queen of the Netherlands. She has collaborated with many other orchestras such as the Belgian National Orchestra, Brussels Philharmonic, the Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie, the Bad Reichenhall Philharmoniker, in halls such as the Palais des Beaux-Arts and Flagey in Brussels, the Vlaamse Opera in Gent, deSingel in Antwerp and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. She took part in several international festivals including B-Classic Festival van Vlaanderen, Les Echappées Musicales du Médoc, Festival Musiq’3, Klara in deSingel, Collegium Vocale Crete Senesi and the Festivals de Wallonie.

Her first CD recording "Lointain passé" with pianist Eliane Reyes, dedicated to composers Eugène Ysaÿe and Guillaume Lekeu was released in September 2021 for the Outhere Music-Fuga Libera label, and was highly appreciated by critics.

Born in 1994, Sylvia had her first violin lessons with her father and continued her studies at the Académie des Arts de la Ville de Bruxelles, and later on with Alexei Moshkov and Liviu Prunaru. She won first prize at the Belfius Classics National Musical Competition in 2004 and at the Lions European Musical Competition in 2008. From 2012 to 2014, she was a member of the National Orchestra of Belgium before joining the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam until 2022. As a passionate chamber musician, she founded the GoYa Quartet with three of her RCO colleagues. After having won the prestigious "Prix de Salon 2015" awarded by the business network of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the GoYa Quartet Amsterdam was able to make recordings of two live performances of all Brahms and Schumann string quartets.

Sylvia plays on a Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume, on loan from the Arthur Grumiaux Foundation. In 2023, she will become the new concertmaster of La Monnaie/De Munt Symphony Orchestra in Brussels.

Official website: Sylvia Huang

Hani Song

Swiss-born violinist Hani Song has garnered acclaim through numerous competition victories, including a first prize at the International Marschner Competition and a second prize at the Lions Music Competition. Her most recent awards are the prestigious Kiefer Hablitzel | Ernst Göhner Prize (2022) and the Prize of the Konzertverein Ingolstadt (2023).
As a soloist, she has performed on major stages, collaborating with orchestras like the Bavarian Philharmonic, Orchestra della Magna Grecia, Dachauer Sinfonietta and the Academic Orchestra of Zurich. Her concerts took place in many prominent cities of Europe, South America and Russia. Hani is a passionate chamber musician. In many formations from duos up to octets, she plays with chamber music partners such as Christoph Poppen, Wen-Sinn Yang, Priya Mitchell, Ettore Causa and many more.
The Lyra Foundation and the Fritz Gerber Foundation have kindly granted Hani scholarships over several years. In 2016, she won the Friedl Wald Scholarship and since 2018, she is a scholarship holder of Yehudi Menuhin Live Music Now Munich e.V. Three documentaries were filmed by the Swiss National Television about Hani, which were broadcasted internationally.
Her studies led her to the Munich University of Music and Performing Arts with Prof. Mi-Kyung Lee, after studying in her hometown Zurich with Prof. Andreas Janke at the University of Arts. She gained musical inspiration by attending masterclasses with Ana Chumachenco, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Nora Chastain and Igor Ozim, to name a few.
Hani grew up playing in various youth orchestras since she was little. She gained professional orchestral experience by playing in the Verbier Festival Orchestra as a leader and in the first violin section of the Staatskapelle Berlin for two seasons. In 2024, she joined the first violins of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.

Saeko Oguma

Saeko Oguma studied viola at the Tōhō Gakuen School in Tokyo. She subsequently gained orchestral experience playing in the Deutsches Symphonieorchester Berlin and in several leading orchestras in Japan, inclusing the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra and the Tokyo Opera Nomori Orchestra under the baton of Riccardo Muti. She performed chamber music in festivals throughout Japan.

She pursued her studies with Sven Arne Tepl, Marjolein Dispa and Nobuko Imai at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam.

Saeko Oguma was prize winner during the International Johannes Brahms Competition in 2008. Earlier, she had won the 2006 Tokyo music competition, the Nagoya international music competition and the 2002 competition of the Japan Classical Music Association.

After winning the Amsterdam National Viola Competition, she joined the Concertgebouworkest's viola section as assistant principal in September 2010.

Honorine Schaeffer

Born into an artistic family, Honorine Schaeffer began cello studies at six in her hometown Avignon, later studying at Montpellier’s conservatoire with Cyrille Tricoire. She earned a master’s degree with distinction from the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris in 2012. During this time, she won the Young Talent Award from the Carl Flesch Academy and first prize at the Lions European Musical Competition.

Always seeking to expand her expression on the cello and deepen her knowledge, Honorine continued her studies with Leonid Gorokhov at the Hochschule für Musik in Hannover (Germany), graduating in 2019. Under his guidance, she began a journey that shaped her into the cellist she is today.

Her passion for symphonic music began at a young age, with early participation in the Académie de l'Orchestre de Paris (2008) and the Académie de l'Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France (2009). She joined the Academy of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in 2012/2013, followed by the Karajan Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic.

At 22, she won an audition for the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, where she has been a member of the cello section since August 2014. Her orchestral experience enriches her musicality, making her a well-rounded musician. Honorine also finds great artistic fulfillment in chamber music, where her exceptional flexibility and warm sound are frequently praised. She is a founding member of the GoYa Quartet, and also forms the HoNa Duo with Russian pianist Nadezda Filippova.

Transmission of knowledge is essential to Honorine, who is not only a performer but also a passionate pedagogue: she teaches privately and at the Concertgebouworkest Academy, coached the cello section of the Verbier Festival Junior Orchestra in 2021, and served as a cello teacher at the Gooische Muziekschool in Weesp for two years. She plays a 1866 Bernardel Père cello and bows crafted by her father, French bowmaker Christophe Schaeffer.