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  • Barcelona draw with Rayo Vallecano in La Liga after VAR outage | Football News

    Barcelona draw with Rayo Vallecano in La Liga after VAR outage | Football News

    Rayo were furious after a VAR failure meant Lamine Yamal’s first-half penalty could not be reviewed in their 1-1 draw against the defending La Liga title holders.

    Published On 1 Sep 2025

    Barcelona dropped their first points in La Liga this season as Rayo Vallecano fought back to secure a 1-1 draw at home to the champions in a testy encounter where a faulty Video Assistant Referee (VAR) system caused controversy.

    Rayo substitute Fran Perez thrashed home a 67th-minute equaliser as he stole in unmarked at the back post from a corner after Lamine Yamal’s 40th-minute penalty had put Barca ahead on Sunday.

    A malfunctioning VAR ensured the game was clouded in controversy after Pep Chavarria’s challenge on Yamal, which led to the spot kick being awarded, could not be reviewed because the system was not working at the time.

    Chavarria did make contact with Yamal’s thigh, but the penalty award might have been overturned on review.

    Both teams had been informed of the faulty system at kickoff, but Rayo’s vigorous protests over referee Mateo Busquets’s decision ensured the rest of the clash at Vallecas Stadium was played in a tempestuous atmosphere.

    Indignant home supporters voiced their fury at every subsequent decision that went against their side.

    Barcelona goalkeeper Joan Garcia made several outstanding stops to deny Rayo a win at the end of a week in which the club from the Madrid suburbs secured a place in the Conference League group phase on their return to Europe after 24 years.

    Garcia made a point-blank save to deny Andrei Ratiu in the 12th minute and, in the second half, spectacularly denied efforts from Isi Palazon and a breakaway on goal by Jorge de Frutos.

    Substitute Sergio Camello could have won the game for Rayo in the last minute, but with the goal at his mercy, he miscued his shot, allowing a grateful Garcia to gather easily.

    For Barca, Daniel Olmo was guilty of missing an easy goal soon after teenager Yamal’s penalty had put the visitors ahead. Olmo’s strike sailed over the top of the crossbar from close range, setting off an angry reaction from furious coach Hansi Flick.

    Barcelona had won their opening two games of the season, but the dropped points mean Real Madrid and Athletic Bilbao are the only two clubs with a 100 percent record after three matches in La Liga. Rayo have four points from their opening matches of the campaign.

    Rayo Vallecano coach Inigo Perez speaks with the refereeafter Barcelona player Lamine Yamal’s penalty in the 40th minute was unable to be reviewed by the VAR due to a malfunction [Isabel Infantes/Reuters]

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  • Vermeer or not? New display lets visitors decide who painted almost identical artworks | Johannes Vermeer

    Vermeer or not? New display lets visitors decide who painted almost identical artworks | Johannes Vermeer

    Two almost identical paintings have been at one time attributed to the great Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer – but what is the relationship between them?

    Visitors to a new display at Kenwood in London will be invited to draw their own conclusions on this intriguing question when two versions of a 17th-century painting, titled the Guitar Player, hang alongside each other for the first time in 300 years.

    For many years, the paintings – one of which is in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, while the other hangs at Kenwood – were believed to have been painted by the Dutch master. But in the 1920s, the consensus shifted.

    The Kenwood painting, which is in much better condition and – crucially – is signed by the artist, was the original Vermeer, experts agreed. The Philadelphia version, in which the young woman wears her hair not in ringlets but tight braids, was widely accepted to be an 17th- or 18th-century copy.

    The Guitar Player, c.1675-1725, from the Philadelphia Museum of Art collection. Photograph: Philadelphia Museum of Art

    But is that the whole story? In 2023, a Dutch art researcher suggested that the Philadelphia painting might be the painter’s own copy of the image – potentially a sensational development for an artist with only 37 acknowledged surviving paintings.

    As a result, the Philadelphia Museum of Art has been conducting further tests on their painting, while English Heritage, which manages Kenwood and its collection for the nation, has also tested its own Vermeer. While curators anxiously await those results, the two paintings will hang side by side in London for four months, allowing visitors to make up their own minds.

    While the original impetus for the dual display was the painter’s 350th anniversary in December, says Wendy Monkhouse, English Heritage’s senior curator at Kenwood, “the emergence of the discussion [over the Philadelphia painting] raised the opportunity to be able to say: ‘OK, let’s really discuss this.’ Both on an expert level, and offering the public an opportunity to become detectives and to weigh the evidence.”

    Comparing the works side by side offers the viewer “a rather beautiful confusion”, she says. “You can’t believe your eyes.”

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    The results of the analysis, expected within months, will be illuminating, whether or not they suggest Vermeer painted both works, Monkhouse says. “To have a copy of the Guitar Player by him would be extraordinary, because it would be unique. There is no other copy that he made. [But] if somebody else copied this painting, then what else did they paint in life? Because they’re too good to have just done the one painting.”

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  • ‘Simba’ to race in Wolverhampton half marathon for young patients

    ‘Simba’ to race in Wolverhampton half marathon for young patients

    A man is racing a half marathon dressed as a lion cub to raise money to buy presents for children in hospital over Christmas.

    Earl Edwards will wear a Simba costume, a character from The Lion King, to fundraise for patients in New Cross Hospital’s children’s ward in Wolverhampton.

    The 52-year-old care home worker from Codsall, who runs every evening, has raised more than £500,000 for charity in recent years.

    “I want to do everything I can to help others,” he said. “To be in hospital at Christmas must be awful, especially [for] young children.”

    “I always put 110% in everything I do, so I am hoping to raise £10,000.”

    Mr Edwards said he had lost a lot of friends and family to heart conditions and other illnesses over the last few years.

    He has run the London Marathon 20 times, raised money for Children with Cancer UK and also completed a bungee jump for Compton Hospital.

    His latest charitable endeavour will see him taking part in the Wolverhampton half marathon on 7 September.

    Amie Rogers from Your RWTC, the registered charity of The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust, thanked him for “thinking about us and challenging himself”.

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  • Tactile sensors from auxetic mechanical metamaterials

    Tactile sensors from auxetic mechanical metamaterials

    Engineers have developed tactile sensors with increased sensitivity, thanks to auxetic mechanical metamaterials.

    Engineers have developed tactile sensors with increased sensitivity, thanks to auxetic mechanical metamaterials.
    Tactile sensors are common amongst technologies such as touchscreens, touchpads, smartwatches, and fitness trackers. These sensors convert physical stimuli, such as pressure or force, into an electrical response within the device. Beyond consumer electronics, tactile technology is highly relevant for advanced prosthetics, industrial robotics, security systems, and healthcare devices that give feedback on the users’ physical movements for health monitoring.

    Mechanical metamaterials (MMs) have gained popularity for building tactile sensors and actuators thanks to the tunability of a wide range of their physical properties. These can be introduced by tweaking their periodic cellular architectures to concentrate or amplify the pressure applied to the sensor.

    Comparison of deformation behavior between a positive
    and a negative Poisson’s ratio material. Image credit:
    Mingyu Kang et al., doi.org/10.1002/adfm.202509704.

    Interestingly, a category of MMs called auxetic mechanical metamaterials (AMMs) exhibits negative Poisson’s ratio, i.e., when compressed, they tend to contract laterally instead of expanding. Prof. Soonjae Pyo’s team at Seoul National University of Science and Technology used digital light processing, a 3D printing technique for curing photopolymerizable materials layer-by-layer, to develop silicon rubber-based AMMs comprising specifically arranged spherical voids in a cubic lattice. The joints around these spherical voids facilitate the above-mentioned lateral contraction as they tend to undergo rotational deformation under applied stress.

    The team built two kinds of tactile sensors based on such AMMs: capacitive sensors, that respond directly to pressure modulation, and a carbon nanotube (CNT)-coated resistive sensor (C-AMM) that responds to changes in resistance in a material when deformed. A capacitive sensor is typically more sensitive to small changes in pressure, while a resistive sensor is favorable for detecting larger pressures, thereby complementing each other.

    Exploring a possible real world application, the team developed a resistive sensor by creating a sensor array, wherein 16 C-AMM units are arranged in a grid of 4 rows and 4 columns each, creating a 16-pixel grid, each integrated between custom-built electrodes.. Such an array was subjected to varied levels of stress from non-contact to multiple points to assess its sensitivity and spatial discrimination. Further, the researchers developed a smart insole comprising a pair of electrodes and C-AMM sensor arrays sandwiched inside polymeric films, which they installed in shoes for gait monitoring and pronation analysis while the user is out for a walk.

    Design of the AMM sensor (left). Architecture of the sensor (right). Image credit: Image credit: Mingyu Kang et al., doi.org/10.1002/adfm.202509704.

    This research offers what the authors call a “structure-centric design approach, decoupled from specific material choices,” which can serve as a strategy for building customized tactile sensors capable of better strain concentration and energy dissipation for the improved sensitivity of prosthetics, biomedical devices for health monitoring, and extending the capabilities of robots.

    Featured Image Credit: Gordon Johnson via Pixabay

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  • CMAT bigs up AWAL: ‘I’ve made three albums with pretty much no interference’ | Talent

    CMAT bigs up AWAL: ‘I’ve made three albums with pretty much no interference’ | Talent

    CMAT has spoken to Music Week about her bond with AWAL and the creative freedom the relationship has allowed.

    The Irish singer-songwriter, whose third album Euro-Country was released on Friday (August 29), signed to the Sony-owned firm four years ago at the age of 25. 

    “By the standards of the music industry, that is so old,” laughed CMAT, aka Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson.

    Speaking in our recent cover story, the now 29-year-old said she didn’t “see signing a deal as a measure of success”, but found the nature of the arrangement met her needs perfectly. 

    “They gave me a very good and fair deal,” she said. “Maybe you don’t get the big fat advance you might with a major, but you will own your music, and you will earn residuals off it, and be able to do whatever you want with it once you come out of the deal after a short number of years, instead of someone owning 85% of the songwriting for 80 years. I needed to have control of my own ship.”

    If I turn around and say I want to release an album in three weeks, they can’t do anything because I have control

    CMAT

    CMAT’s first two LPs – 2022 debut If My Wife New I’d Be Dead and Ivor Novello and Mercury Prize-nominated 2023 follow-up Crazymad, For Me – were also released via AWAL. And Thompson believed that retaining control has helped her to increase her output.

    “I’ve made three albums with pretty much no interference; if I turn around and say I want to release an album in three weeks, they can’t do anything because I have control,” she said. “It’s not a model that works for everybody, some people want more guidance, but I’d been wanting to make music professionally for so long that I made three albums in four years. If I had signed with a major, I would still probably be on my first album cycle.” 

    Hailing from Dunboyne, County Meath in Ireland, both of Thompson’s first two albums topped the charts in her homeland. Euro-Country’s title track is partly sung in Irish and addresses the consequences of the failure of the Celtic Tiger, while the record’s cover pays homage to Dublin’s Blanchardstown shopping centre – a popular CMAT haunt during her formative years. 

    Nevertheless, the London-based musician said she “certainly wasn’t part of an Irish scene”, adding that she didn’t meet fellow exports such as Fontaines DC until after becoming successful. What’s more, she said she wasn’t a huge fan of “traditional Irish music”.

    You need to understand your audience and when you’re doing good or badly

    CMAT

    “It’s amazing and it’s beautiful, but there are so many nights where musicians end up in the same pub and people will pass the guitar around,” she said. “You have The Mary Wallopers, Lankum, Lemoncello and Junior Brother and they’re all singing a traditional song. Then it comes to me, and I don’t know any of those songs, so they have to listen to me singing my own.

    “Everyone has always been nice and respected me and no one’s been a fucking dickhead or anything, but it has always made me feel a bit insecure and not a part of things.”

    Thompson recently achieved her first hit single with Take A Sexy Picture Of Me, which peaked just outside the UK Top 40 and inspired TikTok dance craze the “Woke Macarena”. It also reached No.22 in Ireland.

    The singer, who described herself as an “extremely loud, hyperactive, Tasmanian devil person,” said she has enjoyed being able to experiment creatively and in business.

    “You need to understand your audience and when you’re [doing] good or badly,” she said. “I’ve released songs that I didn’t like, and the immediacy with which I was able to understand that I didn’t like them was only as a result of being able to release so prolifically.

    “Releasing as much stuff as I could in such a short amount of time has been the best education I could have had. The fact that other labels don’t work like that is crazy, because they tank people’s careers that way.”

    Subscribers can read the full CMAT cover story, which also features interviews with her manager Barry O’Donaghue, AWAL and agent Natasha Gregory of Mother Artists.

     

    For more stories like this, and to keep up to date with all our market leading news, features and analysis, sign up to receive our daily Morning Briefing newsletter

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  • Smart Eye Sensor Warns of Dangerous Fatigue

    Smart Eye Sensor Warns of Dangerous Fatigue

    Compact sensors enable integration of fatigue feedback into daily decision-making.

    More compact and less intrusive sensor technologies will change how athletes train, drivers rest, and clinicians schedule shifts by integrating objective fatigue feedback into daily decision-making processes.

    What if fatigue could be detected before any performance decline becomes noticeable? Would that redefine how we manage safety in high-risk environments? Might intelligent, sensor-driven fatigue detection systems reduce accidents, errors, and injuries across industries by alerting individuals before critical lapses occur?

    Especially in today’s society, given our increasingly fast-paced lifestyles, human-kind is challenged with staying in control and maintaining a high level of performance. Fatigue is still a critical physiological and psychological condition that significantly impairs human performance, alertness, and decision-making abilities: millions of individuals suffer from fatigue, especially chronic fatigue, which lowers productivity, safety, and quality of life.

    Traditional evaluation instruments are either laborious (like EEG, salivary cortisol assays, or camera-based eye trackers) or subjective (like self-reported questionnaires), intrusive, and inadequate for real-time monitoring. For example, traditional eye-tracking methods, such as electrooculography (EOG) and camera-based platforms, have a number of drawbacks such as their sensitivity to motion artifacts or ambient light and high power consumption, limiting their feasibility for long-term daily fatigue monitoring as well as their clinical application. However, due to recent developments in material science combined with the integration of machine learning algorithms and data fusion techniques, the design of new sensors enables the delivery of early warnings and actionable insights to mitigate fatigue-related risks.

    Smart eye sensor with cross section of the sensor layers (above). Credit: Tianyi Li et al., Adv Sens Res, 2025.

    In their recent Advanced Sensor Research publication, Tianyi Li and colleagues from the University of Washington and Dongguk University fill this important gap by presenting a smart eye sensor: a wearable, objective, lightweight approach that uses eye movement measurements to assess weariness. Small, delicate, and extremely sensitive sensors made from cylindrical carbon nanotube-paper composite (CCPC) provide the non-contact assessment of two verified biomarkers of fatigue: eye closure and blink rate. The eye tracker is incorporated inside eyeglass frames; the gadget may be worn comfortably for long periods of time and doesn’t require skin contact or camera calibration like other systems do.

    Using just 15 minutes of cognitive and noise stress tests, their gadget effectively separated people with chronic fatigue from healthy controls and showed good agreement with self-reported values in a clinical investigation. Machine learning algorithms trained on eye-based digital biomarkers considerably improved this performance.

    “This eye tracker is designed for objective fatigue monitoring but is also suitable for general-purpose applications, including human-machine interfaces, cognitive monitoring, and potential use in the diagnosis of neurological disorders,” says Dr. Jaehyun Chung, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Washington. “Traditionally, many patients with fatigue seek care at Korean medicine clinics, where diagnosis relies heavily on subjective methods such as pulse diagnosis, tongue inspection, and clinical interviews. The availability of highly sensitive, non-invasive tools like this wearable eye tracker could introduce more objective and quantifiable assessments of fatigue into routine clinical practices,” concludes Professor Hojun Kim of Dongguk University College of Korean Medicine.

    Despite the incredible milestones conquered, there are still a number of barriers to overcome. In order to improve and validate the eye tracker and its testing protocol, the research team at the university’s College of Korean Medicine plans to examine a wider range of people, including those with more serious illnesses. Improving the device’s ergonomics is crucial to reducing the unpredictability brought on by variations in facial anatomy; additionally, software is being improved to facilitate real-time feedback and smooth integration with mobile health systems.

    This breakthrough in eye-tracking technology represents a major advance in real-time fatigue detection, offering a proactive safeguard against critical lapses. As the system continues to evolve, future developments could see it integrated into vehicles and workplaces, paving the way for smarter, more responsive environments that adapt to human alertness in real time.

    Featured image courtesy of Professor Sanggyuen Ahn, Industrial Design, University of Washington.

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  • TCS Completes One of UK’s Largest Policy Migrations for Lloyds Banking Group’s Scottish Widows

    TCS Completes One of UK’s Largest Policy Migrations for Lloyds Banking Group’s Scottish Widows

    TCS subsidiary Diligenta completes Life and Pensions Data and Business Process Migration for over 3.8 million Scottish Widows’ policyholders  

    PRESS RELEASE

    LONDON | MUMBAI, September 1, 2025: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) (BSE: 532540, NSE: TCS), a global leader in IT services, consulting, and business solutions, today announced that it has completed the migration of Scottish Widows’ life and pension heritage book onto its TCS BaNCSTM administration platform managed by Diligenta, a leading life and pensions provider in the United Kingdom, and a subsidiary of TCS. 

    Diligenta has migrated the final tranche of data relating to more than 900,000 customers. With this migration, Diligenta has completed the Life and Pension migrations covering over 3.8 million customers of Scottish Widows on the TCS BaNCSTM Platform and digital ecosystem. 

    Additionally, TCS has implemented the Next-gen TCS BaNCS Wealth administration platform that caters to the UK market. It has successfully completed the migration of 980,000 retail customers’ portfolios. TCS’ next-gen platform will support servicing existing Individual Savings Accounts/Open Ended Investment Company (Mutual Funds) products while enabling future digital servicing for customers.

    The transformation replaced a number of legacy systems with the digitally enabled TCS BaNCSTM BFSI platform. Customers can now expect faster and simpler service from Scottish Widows.

    Donald MacKechnie, Chief Operating Officer, and Managing Director, Longstanding, Scottish Widows said, “We have reached an important milestone in our transformation programme, and our ongoing relationship with Diligenta and TCS. We look forward to continuing to enhance customer experience by providing customers with better and faster service, enabled by digitisation.” 

    R Vivekanand, President, Product and Platforms, TCS, said, “The team has set a new benchmark following a migration of this scale. Our relationship with Scottish Widows continues to thrive, and we look forward to further enhancing what we do with them including leveraging state of the art technology developments like AI to further improve digital customer experience”.

    Scottish Widows, the life and pensions arm of Lloyds Banking Group, entered into a 15-year partnership with TCS in September 2017 for a core transformation to replace multiple legacy systems with the TCS BaNCS platform, simplify the operating model, deliver a superior customer experience, and reduce risk, while providing end-to-end policy administration services to 4 million customers.

    The TCS BaNCS Insurance Platform is a digitally-enabled, end-to-end policy administration platform that manages life, pensions and investment products, with over 20 million policies currently under administration in the United Kingdom. It is a complete, open architecture solution with an integrated business rules engine, encompassing policy administration, data management, integrated imaging, and workflow administration.

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  • Rothrock makes good on Schmetzer’s trust, scores dagger in Sounders’ Leagues Cup Final win over Inter Miami

    Rothrock makes good on Schmetzer’s trust, scores dagger in Sounders’ Leagues Cup Final win over Inter Miami

    In the buildup to Sunday’s Leagues Cup Final, Seattle Sounders Head Coach Brian Schmetzer quipped with local media when asked about how he was planning on stopping Inter Miami’s plethora of world-class talent led by Lionel Messi.

    “Messi is arguably the best player the world has ever seen,” he said, “but we have Paul Rothrock.”

    Schmetzer’s witticism resonated enough to where the Sounders offered a promotion on Sunday that allowed fans to swap out their Inter Miami Messi kits for a Rothrock jersey free of charge. Rothrock, a Capitol Hill native and Academy product, is in his second full season with the Sounders First Team and has become a cult hero of local boy done good.

    “That was hilarious,” Rothrock said. “My family couldn’t believe that was happening.”

    What began as a rather cheeky remark, however, ultimately served more as a premonition of what was to come. The Sounders won the Leagues Cup Final 3-0, holding Messi & Co. in check while Rothrock delivered the coup de grâce with a goal in the 89th minute.

    Alex Roldan played a ball toward the top of the 18-yard box that wrong-footed a couple Miami defenders, and Rothrock was the first to pounce on the loose ball. He took one touch toward goal before firing a shot across his body to the far post that beat goalkeeper Oscar Ustari and sent the Lumen Field faithful into a raucous frenzy.

    “I didn’t know what to do [after I scored] honestly,” said Rothrock. “It was a kind of typical goal that I score. It’s a scrappy ball that comes to me in the right moment.”

    The 26-year-old may have been a feel-good story when his First Team journey began in 2023, but he’s matured and evolved into not just a capable depth piece, but a bona fide contributor. He’s solidified himself as an out and out starter, recording three goals and six assists in 26 MLS matches this year.

    “I like pressure,” said Rothrock. “It’s why we play, for big moments like this. I was really grateful that Schmetzer put that pressure on me, and he looks like a smart guy now.”

    Lumen Field has played hosts to many memorable Sounders triumphs. Seattle has hosted five finals —2010 U.S. Open Cup, 2011 U.S. Open Cup, 2019 MLS Cup, 2022 Concacaf Champions Cup and 2025 Leagues Cup — and has won all of them. Sunday night was the first one Rothrock got to experience in person, and it’s one he’ll never forget.

    “I think it’s going to take a couple days to process how special this moment was for me and this team and for Seattle,” he said.


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  • James Webb Telescope Finds Carbon-Rich Planet Nursery

    James Webb Telescope Finds Carbon-Rich Planet Nursery

    In a cosmic twist worthy of a sci-fi plot, scientists using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to peer deep into space have discovered a planet-forming disk that defies expectations. Instead of the usual steamy soup of water vapor, this disk is bubbling with carbon dioxide and barely a trace of water. The discovery, led by Jenny Frediani at Stockholm University, is shaking up what we thought we knew about how planets like Earth form.

    When stars are born, they form within a swirling disk of gas and dust, the nursery where planets eventually take shape. Usually, icy pebbles from the outer disk drift inward, melt in the warmth, and release water vapor. But this time, JWST’s MIRI instrument picked up something unexpected: a strong carbon dioxide signal and almost no water.

    So what’s cooking up all this CO₂? Arjan Bik, another researcher at Stockholm University, suspects ultraviolet rays might be rewriting the disk’s chemistry.

    The team also spotted rare versions of carbon dioxide, molecules with heavier isotopes, such as carbon-13 and oxygen-17 or -18. These could help solve mysteries about the chemical fingerprints found in ancient meteorites and comets from our own Solar System.

    Webb observed the chemical signature of carbon-rich dust grains in the early Universe

    This peculiar disk lives in NGC 6357, a massive star-forming region about 53 quadrillion kilometers away. The find comes courtesy of the XUE (eXtreme Ultraviolet Environments) collaboration, which studies how harsh radiation affects planet-making chemistry.

    Thanks to JWST’s MIRI instrument, a powerful infrared camera and spectrograph co-developed by scientists at Stockholm University and Chalmers, astronomers can now peek into dusty, distant disks with stunning clarity. By comparing chaotic star-forming zones with quieter ones, researchers are beginning to map out the diverse origins of planets.

    Journal Reference:

    1. Jenny Frediani, Arjan Bik, María Claudia Ramírez-Tannus, Rens Waters, Konstantin V. Getman, Eric D. Feigelson, Bayron Portilla-Revelo, Benoît Tabone, Thomas J. Haworth, Andrew Winter, Thomas Henning, Giulia Perotti, Alexis Brandeker, Germán Chaparro, Pablo Cuartas-Restrepo, Sebastian Hernández A., Michael A. Kuhn, Thomas Preibisch, Veronica Roccatagliata, Sierk E. van Terwisga, Peter Zeidler. XUE: The CO2-rich terrestrial planet-forming region of an externally irradiated Herbig disk. Astronomy, 2025; 701: A14 DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/202555718

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  • The Strad news – Poiesis Quartet wins the 2025 Banff International String Quartet Competition

    The Strad news – Poiesis Quartet wins the 2025 Banff International String Quartet Competition

    Read more news stories here 

    The finals of the 15th Banff International String Quartet Competition took place on 31 August at the Banff Centre’s Jenny Belzberg Theatre in Banff, Canada. Three quartets performed a programme of their choice, with a 45-minute limit. 

    First place was awarded to the Poeisis Quartet from Cincinnati, Ohio. The first prize package comprises a CAD25,000 (£13,400) cash prize, as well as touring across North America with MKI Artists and across Europe with Kozertdirektion Hampl. They also receive a Banff Centre residency, a recording residency, the Southern Methodist University Peak Fellowship Ensemble-in-Residence Prize, Esterházy Foundation Residency with concerts at Haydn Hall in Eisenstadt and the Lucerne Festival, and the possibility of a two-week Chamber Music Residency at Britten Pears Arts in England.

    The Arete Quartet from Seoul, South Korea, was awarded the CAD12,000 (£6,400) second prize, and the Quartet KAIRI won the CAD8,000 (£4,300) third prize. Both also receive a creative residency at the Banff Centre. 

    The R.S. Williams & Sons Haydn Prize, worth CAD4,000 (£2,100), for the best performance of Haydn in the first round, was awarded to the Quartet KAIRI. And the Poeisis Quartet also won the Canadian Commission World Premiere Prize, worth CAD4,000, for the best performance of the commissioned quartet by Kati Agócs, Rapprochement.

    All quartets not advancing to the finals were awarded a Christine and David Anderson Prize of CAD5,000 (£2,700). These quartets are: Quatuor Elmire, Viatores Quartet, Nerida Quartet, Quartett HANA, Cong Quartet and Quatuor Magenta. 

    The Poiesis Quartet comprises violinists Sarah Ying Ma and Max Ball, violist Jasper de Boor and cellist Drew Dansby. They are winners of the 2023 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and 2024 Concert Artists Guild Competition. They were also recipients of the BIPOC Prize at the 2023 St. Paul String Quartet Competition. 

    The quartet has performed internationally, including in Uruguay in 2023 and at Italy’s Emilia Romagna Festival in 2024. The group is particularly passionate about new music and has commissioned various works. The quartet recently released its debut album featuring world premiere recordings of works by Clint Needham and Richard Stout.

    The group is currently the graduate quartet-in-residence at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, studying with the Ariel Quartet. As graduates of the Oberlin Conservatory, they were previously mentored by Sibbi Bernhardsson of the Pacifica Quartet and the Verona Quartet. 

    The 2025 edition’s jury consisted of Eckart Runge, Marie Chilemme, Jonathan Crow, Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt, Honggang Li, Eugene Drucker and David Ying.

    This is the 15th edition of the BISQC, which takes place every three years. Past winners include the Isidore Quartet (US, 2022); Marmen Quartet and Viano Quartet (2019); Rolston Quartet (2016); Dover Quartet (US, 2013); Cecilia Quartet (Canada, 2010); Tinalley Quartet (Australia, 2007); Jupiter Quartet (USA, 2004); Daedalus Quartet (US, 2001); Miró Quartet (US, 1998) and, St. Lawrence Quartet (Canada, 1992).

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