Counted among leading string quartets of the younger generation worldwide, Goldmund Quartet was recently named “Rising Stars” (2019-2020) by the European Concert Hall Organisation. The players debut with one of Schubert’s earliest works, unusually homotonal and popular with home musicians.  A notable highlight of Weinberg’s masterful #5 is its highly appealing and contrasting movements. Then pianist Gloria Chien (making her CMH debut) tackles Amy Beach’s landmark quintet which calls the piano to emerge victorious within the intensity of the strings.

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Goldmund Quartet with Gloria Chien, piano

Rice University

Founded in 1997 in Madrid, Cuarteto Casals regularly performs in the world’s most prestigious concert halls since winning First Prizes at the London and Brahms-Hamburg competitions. We begin with a quartet by Spanish Basque child prodigy Arriaga, revealing a unique sound modeled after Hadyn and Mozart. Next we hear an exciting work commissioned in 2024 from Spanish-American composer Elisenda Fábregas, The evening ends with Schubert’s harmonically innovative and final quartet, widely considered his greatest and most challenging.

Cuarteto Casals

Merz Trio returns with another powerful program. Sandwiched between Beethoven’s Piano Trio (a conversation of tension and dark lyricism) and Dvořák’s Piano Trio (an emotionally rich venture of intense inner conflict) we find  the sweet center: Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht (“Transfigured Night”), a  journey of tonal richness from D minor to D major, reviving harmonic language reminiscent of both Wagner and Brahms.

Merz Trio

For more than 50 years, various iterations of the Canadian Brass have been entertaining audiences across the globe. Beloved for their sense of humor and masterful playing, these seasoned musicians still manage to sound fresh, still attract young virtuosi, and always have fun with the music, both on stage and off — not to mention their 100+ recordings which have sold collectively more than two million albums. Catch their latest news on Twitter and Facebook!

Canadian Brass

Playing on period Italian instruments, Modigliani Quartet will grace us with works by giants of the string quartet: Haydn’s #67 with its unusual opening, Adagio, and closing movements; then we sample a charmingly rich work written by a young Beethoven while under the tutelage of Papa Haydn. While the key may point to a previous melancholy Schubert work, Brahms threads lightness, joy, and vulnerable beauty throughout his quartet #2 within a tapestry of canons, polyphony, and counterpoint.

Modigliani Quartet

Honored as Musical America’s “Musicians of the Year”, David Finckel and Wu Han are in high demand every season at the most prestigious chamber music concert venues across the US and abroad, with repertoire highlighting the most significant works for cello and piano.

David Finckel & Wu Han

Dover Quartet collaborates with guest clarinetist Romie de Guise-Langlois (making her CMH debut) on a CMH-co-commissioned quintet titled Equilibrium by Rice composer Pierre Jalbert. One of Haydn’s milestone op.20 quartets and Mozart’s groundbreaking Clarinet Quintet bookend the evening’s repertoire respectively, both equally admired and beloved works.

Dover Quartet with Romie de Guise-Langlois, clarinet

Balourdet Quartet opens the season with a tour of Beethoven’s substantive string quartet landscape. Marked #3, the D major is widely considered his first quartet, a bright and gentle step into a realm he would redefine. Sourced from personal turmoil and his impending deafness, the darkness and lyricism of #11 share the stage in one of his most experimental compositions. The evening concludes with #16, the shortest of Beethoven’s late quartets and his last complete major work.

Balourdet Quartet

Doric Quartet’s members use specially made original-style bows for a more refined performance of Classical repertoire such as Haydn’s Quartet #23  which opens the program with its dramatic pauses and clever transitions. The inclusion of Andrea Tarrodi’s Light Scattering underscores the ensemble’s commitment to new music as well. Lastly, Beethoven’s Quartet #10 mirrors the transitions of his life at the time: his Scherzo echoes the heroic power of his Fifth Symphony and “Emperor” Piano Concerto (written with Napoleon in mind), while his tender Adagio gives us a first taste of the transcendence yet to come in future slow movements of his later quartets.

Doric Quartet

CMSLC musicians return to close our 66th season with two pairs of works. First, Leclair’s challenging Sonata for Two Violins fuses Italian and French styles in an intimate melodic interplay; equally challenging and virtuosic is Viotti’s charming Duo for Two Violins.  The second pairing is Saint-Saëns’ youthful and exacting Piano Quintet, while Arensky’s is full of Russian (and French) flavor, considered by some a mature masterpiece.

Chamber Music Houston

Mar 26, 2026

Doric Quartet

Apr 21, 2026

Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center

Mar 5, 2026

Goldmund Quartet with Gloria Chien, piano

Feb 10, 2026

Cuarteto Casals

Chamber Music Houston