The four musicians Blaž Kemperle, Hayrapet Arakelyan, Alan Lužar and Guerino Bellarosa met in Cologne where they founded the SIGNUM saxophone quartet in 2006. The saxophonists have studied in Cologne, Vienna and Paris; they have been influenced and inspired by the Quatuor Ébène, Artemis Quartet and Gabor Takács-Nágy.

Award winners at international competitions including Lugano and Berlin, SIGNUM nowadays play in concert halls and at festivals all over Europe. In 2013 they made their debut in the Carnegie Hall NY.  A very special and remarkable achievement was the award Rising Stars 2014/2015 given by the European Concert Hall Organisation (ECHO), which took SIGNUM to such prestigious concert halls as the Barbican Centre London, Konzerthaus Vienna, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Palais des Beaux-Arts Brussels, Gulbenkian Lisbon, Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, Philharmonie Luxembourg, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Konzerthaus Dortmund, Philharmonie Cologne, amongst others. Recently SIGNUM was awarded “Best Ensemble” by prestigious German Festival Festspiele Mecklenburg Vorpommern.

SIGNUM are constantly searching for new ideas, ground breaking challenges and intriguing artistic encounters. Their sheer joy and experimental versatility are reflected in their extraordinary programs; the four young musicians are also to be heard in classical quartet formations and they continue to create exciting, never before seen joint arrangements with inspiring soundscapes.

In the upcoming 21-22 season, SIGNUM will perform various programs with exciting chamber music partners: Starry Night with Alexej Gerassimez (percussion), BACHianas with Tanja Tetzlaff or Konstantin Manaev (cello); Hommage à Astor with Martynas Levickis (accordion), and they will premier the never-heard program Goldberg Nights with Kai Schumacher (piano & prepared piano). A new project with Daniel Hope (violin) will follow the performance at Hope@Home which has been streamed on Arte.tv. In 2021, they have scheduled various quartet recitals and masterclasses at international prestigious festival and concert halls, and will perform in Moscow (at Olga Rostropovich’s festival), at the Great Philharmonic Hall of St.Petersburg, Alte Oper Frankfurt, and many others. Furthermore, SIGNUM will continue performing with orchestra, among them in 2021/22: Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, as well as the orchestras of Düsseldorf, Münster, Bremen, Duisburg and Vilnius. On the program: P.Glass’ Concerto for orchestra and saxophone quartet, Bob Mintzer’s The Rhythm of the Americas or a new Piazzolla transcription. The SIGNUMs also care deeply about the audience of tomorrow, and so they have devised their own educational family concert SIGNUM4kids. In autumn 2021, SIGNUM will start an exciting season at Duisburg Philharmonic Hall as “Artist in Residence”.

Following their first two albums, Debut (2011) and Balkanication (2014), in 2021 SIGNUM presents two new recordings: Starry Night (with Alexej Gerassimez) and their first Deutsche Grammophon’s album ECHOES featuring inventive arrangements by composers from Dowland, Faurè and Albinoni to Peter Gregson, as well as Guillermo Lago’s ‘Sarajevo’, original for saxophone quartet and including also standout tracks by Max Richter and Joep Beving. The launch has been marked by a concert on DG Stage streamed from the Berlin Meistersaal.