KEBYART, resident quartet at the Palau de la Música Catalana during the 2025–26 and 2026–27 seasons
© Antoni Bofill
The Palau de la Música Catalana reinforces its commitment to musical excellence and innovation with the addition of the Kebyart saxophone quartet as resident ensemble for the 2025-26 and 2026-27 seasons. The residency will be inaugurated with two concerts at the Petit Palau, venues that consolidate an artistic relationship forged over almost a decade and marked by international projection, creativity, and the redefinition of the chamber repertoire.
Founded in Barcelona ten years ago by Pere Méndez (soprano saxophone), Víctor Serra (alto saxophone), Robert Seara (tenor saxophone), and Daniel Miguel (baritone saxophone), Kebyart has enjoyed an unstoppable trajectory since winning the 2016 El Primer Palau Award, a milestone that marked the beginning of its close relationship with the Palau de la Música Catalana and opened the doors to the ECHO Rising Stars circuit in the 2021-22 season. Since then, the quartet has established itself as one of the most unique and versatile ensembles on the European chamber music scene.
An eclectic and brilliant start to residency
On Tuesday, November 18, 2025 (Petit Palau Hall, 7:30 p.m.), Kebyart will inaugurate its residency within the Petit Palau Cambra cycle with a program that perfectly reflects its artistic identity: interpretive rigor, aesthetic freedom, and an insatiable curiosity for the repertoire of all eras.
The concert opens with Johann Sebastian Bach's Sonatina from the cantata Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit, BWV 106, and continues with Felix Mendelssohn's Quartet No. 2 in A minor, Op. 13, both works arranged by the quartet itself. These versions are not mere transcriptions, but authentic statements of intent that reveal new layers of expression in fundamental works of the canon.
The second part of the program delves into contemporary creation with original works for saxophone quartet. Highlights include William Albright's Fantasy Etudes, a score that explores the technical and sonic limits of the instrument, imbued with jazz language and unconventional timbres, and Echoing Rhapsodies – Homage to Gershwin, commissioned by Kebyart from Catalan composer Dani López Pradas, an intense and vibrant work that dialogues with the universe of Gershwin from a thoroughly contemporary perspective. The result is an eclectic and luminous program that embodies the free and communicative spirit of the quartet.
Artistic dialogue and major collaborations
The second concert of the season will take place on Tuesday, April 28, 2026 (Sala Petit Palau, 7:30 p.m.) and will broaden the artistic horizons of the residency through collaboration with pianist Albert Cano and clarinetist Pablo Barragán. The program offers a multifaceted journey through some of the most influential aesthetics of the 20th and 21st centuries, combining minimalism, contemporary music, and personal reinterpretations of great classics.
The program will feature Steve Reich's New York Counterpoint, Entr'acte by Caroline Shaw —guest artist at the Palau during the 2022-23 season— Prélude, canon et riffs by Alexis Ciesla, Maurice Ravel's La valse arranged by Kebyart, and Igor Stravinsky's Suite from The Firebird. A program with a strong aesthetic impact that highlights Kebyart's restless personality and his ability to engage in creative dialogue with other top-level performers.
This concert will be preceded by an Intimate Auditions session on Monday, March 2, 2026 (Orfeó Català Rehearsal Room, 6 p.m.), featuring the members of Kebyart and hosted by journalist and musicologist Xavier Chavarria, offering the audience a close-up look at the quartet's artistic process.
A residence that looks to the future
Kebyart's artistic residency at the Palau de la Música Catalana for the 2025-26 and 2026-27 seasons marks a new stage in the relationship between the quartet and an institution that has accompanied its growth since its inception. Through ambitious programs, collaborations with other musicians, and outreach activities, Kebyart reaffirms its commitment to renewing the chamber music repertoire and to a way of making music that combines excellence, risk-taking, and direct communication with the audience.
A residency that not only celebrates Kebyart's journey to date, but also looks toward the future of the saxophone and contemporary chamber music.