The ENSEMBLE SAX WIEN (ESW) was founded in March 1995 by Beatrix Darmstaedter. It unites four (sometimes more) saxophonists with very different musical backgrounds as one of the rare saxophone quartets in Austria. It regularly performs in chamber-music recitals and appears in orchestras when saxophones are requested. In 1998, it played the Quartett fur vier Saxophone by Gerhard Stalze for the first time - this work is dedicated to the Ensemble Sax Wien. In 1999 the ESW recorded a CD saxohfun with works by Singelée, Jeanjean, Moulaert and Ghidoni.

Beatrix Darmstaedter studied in musicology and philosophy at the University of Vienna (MA '94, PhD '97) as well as in saxophone with A. Hager, E. Rousseau (Austria) and A. Ghidoni (France). Since 1993 she is a teacher at the Conservatory Prayner. Since 1999, she is professor at the Conservatory Gustav-Mahler and assistant at the Institute for Musicology (Univ. of Vienna). In 1995 she was awarded the "Wurdigungspreis" of the Austrian Minister for Science and Arts and in 1998, the "Preis des Theodor Korner Fonds" in the fields of musicology.

Antonia Winkler studied the saxophone with V. Urbancek in Carinthia. She later studied at the Conservatory of Klagenfurt with Joh. Kawrza. She left Carinthia in 1995 to work with O. Vhrovnik at the Academy of Music in Vienna where she is still studying in his saxophone class.

Barbara Hanisch was born in Vienna in 1979 attended the "Musikgymnasium" of Vienna where she passed the final exam in 1999. She is studying saxophone with O. Vhrovnik at the Academy of Music and flute with A. Wild at the Conservatory of the State (Vienna) she is twofold prize-holder of the important Austrian competition "Jugend musiziert" in flute and saxophone (1997)

Albin Paulus was born in Munich and grew up in Braunschweig. He studied in clarinet and saxophone with Kwang-Ho-Oh at the Braunschweig. A musicologist with studies at the University of Vienna (MA '99) and Cremona, he specialises in old music and teaches folk-music (bagpipe). He performs as soloist (jew's-harp, chalumeau) with European orchestras. He is regularly invited to the "Concilium Musicum" (Vienna). He is the first German-speaking winner of the "Concours de Cornemuse de St. Chartier".