Karel Bredenhorst (Den Haag, 1978) took his first cello-lessons with Wouter Mijnders, after which Jet van Baaren taught him for 5 years. In 1997 he studied for 3 years at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague with Monique Bartels. Karel finished his Bachelor exam at the Conservatory of Enschede with Paul Uyterlinde and studied with Troels Svane at the Musikhochschule in Lübeck.
Karel won several prizes with his former string quartet En-Accord. In 2000 En-Accord won a 2nd prize and the audience-prize at the the Princess Christina Competition and in 2001 a 3rd prize at the International Charles Hennen Chambermusic Competition. Since 2003 the quartet is studying at the NSKA (Dutch String Quartet Academy) and is frequently coached by Stefan Metz.
En-Accord participated in masterclasses with famous quartetplayers like Sandor Devich (Bartók Quartet), Milan Skampa (Smetana Quartet), Martin Lovett (Amadeus Quartet), Ferdinand Erblich (Parkanyi Quartet), Earl Carlyss (Juilliuard Quartet), Tim Vogler (Vogler Quartet), Alain Meunier (Conservatoire de Paris), Thomas Brandis (Brandis Quartet), Hugh Maguire (Allegri Quartet) and Valentin Berlinsky (Borodin Quartet).