If you close your eyes, the 900 people seated around you might not exist. The audience is so focused on the performers on the stage of the Eric Harvie Theatre that there isn’t a sound – not a single cough or rustle – as the Zemlinsky Quartet begins Beethoven’s Quartet in E-flat Major. It is the next-to-final evening of the 9th Banff International String Quartet Competition (BISQC), and this is no ordinary audience.

“The BISQC audience is, quite possibly, the most dedicated string quartet audience on the planet,” says Barry Shiffman, BISQC director and head of The Banff Centre’s Music program. “They are a wellspring of support and enthusiasm. We strive to make BISQC feel more like a festival and less like a competition for the quartets, and the BISQC audience makes that possible.”

From August 28 to September 2, 2007, nine of the world’s finest young quartets competed in the triennial competition, vying for the honour of the RBC Awards over the course of 13 performances.

For the Czech Republic’s Zemlinsky Quartet, the passionate interest of the BISQC audience is a joy. “You can feel their support,” says violinist Franktišek Souček. “In other competitions, you might get 50 people attending the first round – here there are 600. Even when you make a mistake, they will come up to you afterward and say ‘we are with you’, and then you feel great.”

The Zemlinsky, formerly the Penguin Quartet, competed in BISQC in 2001 and 2004, and it is not just the audience response that inspired them to apply to the competition again in 2007.

“BISQC has had an unbelievable impact on our career in terms of the contacts we have made here, and the confidence we have gained,” says Souček. The fact that they took home second prize this year is “just icing on the cake” says violist Petr Holman. “It is not just the prize winners who flourish. This competition provides opportunities to every quartet, and if you seize the chance you can make your career.” Following the 2004 competition, the Zemlinsky organized a small Canadian tour, and in 2007 they performed in a dozen concerts across Canada in the weeks following BISQC.

Violinist Lerida Delbridge of Australia’s TinAlley String Quartet, who took first prize in the 2007 competition, agrees. “BISQC sets you up for an international career and provides opportunities which would be incredibly difficult to obtain as a young quartet starting out,” she says. In November TinAlley completed their first BISQC winner’s tour, performing in 11 concerts in the Netherlands, Germany, and Austria.

Luckily, Delbridge says, competing in Banff means they were well prepared for the rigours of the road. “On tour we often had three or four days in a row of concerts with completely different repertoire and the competition prepared us mentally and physically for that aspect of touring. We weren’t used to playing concerts in such close succession and I think we learned many things in Banff about ourselves and how to cope with that kind of pressure.”

2008 will see TinAlley touring across the United States and Canada, and the quartet already has dates in Germany and Holland lined up for 2009. “The most wonderful thing about winning the Banff competition is that we now have a real chance of pursuing our aim to exist as a full-time string quartet,” says Delbridge. In addition to the winner’s tours, TinAlley’s first prize included $20,000, custom bows by renowned bow maker François Malo, and a Banff Centre residency and opportunity to record a CD.

“The reputation of BISQC provides a badge of credibility for all of the invited quartets,” says Shiffman. “But, for the winning quartet, the career boost is immense. Having experienced TinAlley’s debut at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, standing in the middle of an enthusiastic audience on their feet yelling ‘Bravo’, I am confident that BISQC has once again identified a group that will make it.”

The Banff International String Quartet Competition is generously supported by RBC Financial Group through the RBC Foundation. The TinAlley String Quartet will return to Banff for a March 28 performance as part of the 75th anniversary celebrations.