NOVUS Quartet, the first Koreans to receive an award at the Osaka International Chamber Competition, will perform Johann Sebastian Bach’s very last work, “The Art of Fugue,” on Thursday.

Considered one of the most notable Korean chamber music ensembles, NOVUS Quartet is comprised of violinists Kim Jae-young and Kim Young-uk, violist Lee Seung-won and cellist Moon Woong-whee. The young musicians met each other while studying at the prestigious Korea National University of Arts.

The upcoming performance at Kumho Art Hall will feature only one score by Bach. The incomplete work ― the piece was written in the last decade of the composer’s life and never finished ― consists of 14 fugues and four canons, for two to four unspecified instruments. The piece is based on one theme that is transformed into different variations in successive movements.

Thursday’s performance will be the first time in the country for a Korean string quartet to perform the piece in its entirety, at approximately 90 minutes.

The quartet, which was formed in 2007, won third place at the Osaka International Chamber Music Competition in 2008 ― a notable achievement for an ensemble team from a country with very few professional string quartets. The following year, NOVUS Quartet won third prize at the Lyon International Chamber Music Competition.

In 2012, the group won second prize at the ARD International Music Competition, the biggest international classical music competition in Germany. In the same year, they also won third prize in the Fifth International Joseph Haydn Chamber Music Competition.

The Germany-based ensemble, whose members are currently studying in Munich, had their first performance in Seoul in 2008, shortly after winning the third prize at the Osaka International Chamber Competition. Last year, they held their fifth regular concert in Seoul, titled “Nordic & Russian.” The program included Tchaikovsky’s String Quartet No. 3 in F Major, Op. 73, and Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 1 in D Major, Op. 11.

All tickets for the concert on Thursday at Kumho Art Hall in central Seoul cost 30,000 won. For more information, call (02) 6303-1977.

By Claire Lee (dyc@heraldcorp.com)