Regarded by many as without peer, the Alban Berg Quartet this season celebrates its 10th year as Associate Artists of the Royal Festival Hall. One of the original residents appointed by the new South Bank Board in 1987, the Quartet has built up a huge following in London which now guarantees sold-out houses for each of their three concerts in the Queen Elizabeth Hall per season. True to its mission to offer their public intensely challenging and thought-provoking performances of the greatest repertoire for string quartet, the Berg's programmes during the last ten years have included not only their landmark Schubert and Beethoven series, but also exciting new works by composers such as Alfred Schnittke, Wolfgang Rihm, Witold Lutoslawski and Luciano Berio. The Quartet has three other long-standing residencies at major halls in Europe: the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Zurich Opera and the Theatre des Champs-Elysees in Paris. This season they added a fifth at the Philharmonie in Cologne where they will not only give concerts but will also continue to teach at the nearby Hochschule, where they succeeded the Amadeus Quartet some years ago. Rumour has it that two other major European cities are about to join this most elite club...