Kebyart
Pere Méndez – soprano saxophone
Víctor Serra – alto saxophone
Robert Seara – tenor saxophone
Daniel Miguel – baritone saxophone
Since its founding in 2014, the Kebyart Saxophone Quartet has been pushing musical boundaries—and perhaps that is precisely why it has secured a firm place in the classical music scene.
The young ensemble not only performs at festivals and in concert halls where a saxophone quartet has never been heard before, but also inspires contemporary composers to write works for this instrument for the first time.
The ensemble’s bold approach was recognized in the 2021–22 season with its designation as “Rising Stars” by the ECHO (European Concert Hall Organization). Kebyart’s artistic signature is reflected in a creative vision of the repertoire that rests on three main pillars: original literature, their own arrangements of a wide range of styles, and a strong commitment to contemporary composition. In this regard, the quartet commissions new works each year from composers of various generations and musical styles, including Jörg Widmann, Mikel Urquiza, David Philip Hefti, Mauricio Sotelo, Joan Magrané, and José Río-Pareja. The four Catalans have also collaborated with composers such as Péter Eötvös and Heinz Holliger.
In the 2026–27 season, Kebyart will return to the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and the Heidelberg Spring Festival, and will perform at the Handel Festival in Göttingen, the Mozarteum in Salzburg, the Oxford Chamber Music Society, and—for the second year—as Artist-in-Residence at the Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona.
In addition to orchestral debuts with the Hamburg State Philharmonic Orchestra under Eun Sun Kim and the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich under Willem de Vriend, the program features the quartet’s first performance of Fazil Say’s “Preludes” with the Izmir Chamber Orchestra, the world premieres of two works by Gérard Pesson and Ying Wang, and the German premiere of Georg Friedrich Haas’s saxophone quartet.
Kebyart performs regularly in major European concert halls such as the Philharmonie de Paris, the Alte Oper Frankfurt, the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, the Tonhalle Zurich, the Musikverein Vienna, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, and the Palau de la Música de Barcelona. The four musicians are also welcome guests at renowned festivals such as the Mozartwoche in Salzburg, the Heidelberger Frühling, the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the Schubertíada, the Lockenhaus Festival, the Rheingau Musik Festival, the Dresdner Musikfestspiele, Musica Insieme Bologna, the Hindsgavl Festival, Grafenegg, the Mozartfest in Würzburg, the Schumannfest in Düsseldorf, and the Festival de Santander.
In addition to chamber music, Kebyart is particularly passionate about the orchestral repertoire; as a result, the ensemble has performed with renowned orchestras such as the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra, the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, and the Spanish Radio and Television Orchestra, as well as with well-known soloists such as Nicolas Altstaedt, Xavier Sabata, and Dénes Várjon, to explore new musical combinations and discover new sonic dimensions.
Since 2022, Kebyart has been signed to Linn Records/Outhere and has received outstanding reviews for its albums “Lectures différentes” (2022), “Traum der Jugend” (2023), and “Unraveled” (2025). To mark Philip Glass’s 90th birthday, the quartet will record an album dedicated to the composer with the Belgian National Orchestra.
In their pursuit of musical excellence, the ensemble members received guidance from prominent musicians and chamber music ensembles, including Rainer Schmidt (Hagen Quartet), Hatto Beyerle (Alban Berg Quartet), Jonathan Brown (Cuarteto Casals), pianists Anton Kernjak and Claudio Martínez-Mehner, and saxophonist Nacho Gascón.
The quartet was part of the European Chamber Music Academy and collaborated with professors Johannes Meissl and Patrick Jüdt. The ensemble now shares its experience at the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya (ESMUC), the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen, Musikene, and Oriol Martorell, as well as during the summer in its Catalan homeland at the Acadèmia Mestral as part of a saxophone and chamber music course.
The name Kebyart is inspired by the gamelan gong kebyar, a traditional musical genre from Bali that also lends its name to the instrumental ensemble that performs it. Although it consists of dozens of musicians, this ensemble is regarded as a single instrument. Its performance requires great virtuosity and extreme coordination and is characterized by a rich tonal, rhythmic, and dramatic range.
As a brand ambassador, Kebyart plays Selmer Paris saxophones and uses Vandoren accessories.
