Violinist Desirée Ruhstrat, cellist David Cunliffe, and pianist Marta Aznavoorian are known to the CMMB audience for their successful performance in October 2021 as the Lincoln Trio. Ruhstrat, Cunliffe, and violist Aurélien Fort Pederzoli make up the critically-acclaimed Black Oak Ensemble, one of the leading string trios on the international scene. When the two trios combine (yes, in this case, 3 + 3 = 4!), they become the superlative CHICAGO PIANO QUARTET.

EPSG:4326

Chicago Piano Quartet

Sunset Center Theater

Jon Nakamatsu catapulted to international attention in 1997 as the Gold medalist of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. He has been a guest soloist with over 150 orchestras worldwide. Nakamatsu is on the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and is Artist-in-Residence of the Chautauqua Institution Piano Program. With clarinetist Jon Manasse, Mr Nakamatsu tours as a member of the Manasse/Nakamatsu Duo. Following its Boston debut in 2004, the Duo released its first CD of Brahms Sonatas for clarinet and piano which received the highest praise from the New York Times Classical Music Editor James Oestreich, who named it among the "Best of the Year" for 2008. The Duo serve as Artistic Directors of the renowned Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival.

Nakamatsu Manasse Frautschi Trio

The Maxwell Quartet is formed of four close friends, who grew up playing folk and classical music together in youth orchestras and music schools across Scotland. The group officially began in 2010 at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, where its founding members met as postgraduate students. In 2011, the Maxwell Quartet was named as Residency Artists for Enterprise Music Scotland 2011- 2013, which saw several acclaimed concert tours over their two-year tenure. Performing widely across Scotland, the quartet established a reputation for delighting audiences with their "unaffected enthusiasm" (North Highland Times) and their "panache and conviction" (Strathearn Herald). The quartet has since held residencies at Oxford University, Perth Concert Hall, and many chamber music festivals across the UK, including their own festival Loch Shiel in the west highlands of Scotland, and a new self-curated concert series at Guardswell Farm in Perthshire. The quartet currently holds the position of Associate Artist at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow, and at Music at Paxton Festival in the Scottish Borders. Passionate about collaborating with musicians and other art forms, the quartet has worked with a global roster of artists and institutions, including theatre company Cryptic, installation artists Wintour’s Leap, the Royal Ballet School, soul duo Lunir, folk duo Chris Stout & Catriona MacKay, cinematographer Herman Kolgen, and many more. In addition to a busy concert diary, the quartet regularly features in broadcasts for BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio Scotland and regularly gives schools workshops and concerts for children.

Maxwell Quartet

The Daedalus Quartet has established itself as a leader among the new generation of string ensembles. Since winning the top prize in the Banff International String Quartet Competition in 2001, the Daedalus Quartet has impressed critics and listeners alike with the security, technical finish, interpretive unity, and sheer gusto of its performances.


The Daedalus Quartet has won plaudits for its adventurous exploration of contemporary music, most notably the compositions of Elliott Carter, George Perle, György Kurtág, and György Ligeti. Among the works the ensemble has premiered are Huck Hodge's The Topography of Desire, commissioned by the Fromm Foundation; David Horne’s Flight from the Labyrinth, commissioned for the Quartet by the Caramoor Festival; Lawrence Dillon’s String Quartet No. 4, commissioned by the Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts; and Fred Lerdahl’s Third String Quartet, commissioned by Chamber Music America, as well as Lerdahl's Chaconne, commissioned by New Music USA.  

       

To date, the Quartet has forged associations with some of America’s leading classical music and educational institutions: Carnegie Hall, through its European Concert Hall Organization (ECHO) Rising Stars program; and Lincoln Center, which appointed the Daedalus Quartet as the Chamber Music Society Two (now the Bowers Program) quartet for 2005-07. The Daedalus Quartet has served as Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Pennsylvania since 2006. In 2007, the Quartet was awarded Lincoln Center’s Martin E. Segal Award. The Quartet won Chamber Music America’s Guarneri String Quartet Award, which funded a three-year residency in Suffolk County, Long Island from 2007-2010.

Daedalus Quartet with Soyeon Kate Lee, piano

Since winning First Prizes at the London and Brahms-Hamburg competitions, Cuarteto Casals, which was founded in 1997 at the Escuela Reina Sofía in Madrid, has been a continual guest at the world’s most prestigious concert halls including Carnegie Hall, Philharmonie Berlin, Cité de la Musique Paris, Konzerthaus and Musikverein in Vienna, Concertgebouw Amsterdam and Suntory Hall among many others. Cuarteto Casals is approaching its 25th anniversary season which it will celebrate with a recording and series of concerts featuring the complete ‘Art of the Fugue’ by Johann Sebastian Bach and highlights of recent seasons include a cycle of the complete late Mozart quartets at the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin, John Adams ‘Absolute Jest’ with the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra and tours throughout Europe and North America.


A prize from the prestigious Burletti-Buitoni Trust in London enabled the quartet to begin a collection of matching Baroque and Classical period bows which it uses for works from Purcell through Schubert, refining its ability to distinguish between diverse musical styles. In addition, the quartet has been profoundly influenced by its work with living composers, especially György Kurtág, and has given the world premiere of quartets written by leading Spanish composers, including a concerto for string quartet and orchestra by Francisco Coll, premiered with the Orquesta Nacional de España and commissions by Mauricio Sotelo, Benet Casablancas, Dahoud Salim, Lucio Amanti, Aureliano Cattaneo, and Matan Porat.

Cuarteto Casals

Jamie Laredo and Sharon Robinson are the remaining members of the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio. After four decades of success the world over, the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio continues to dazzle audiences and critics alike with its performances. Since making their debut at the White House for President Carter's Inauguration in January 1977, pianist Joseph Kalichstein, violinist Jaime Laredo and cellist Sharon Robinson have set the standard for performance of the piano trio literature, consistently bringing technical mastery, expressive depth, and magnetism to the concert stage. The Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio balances the careers of three internationally-acclaimed soloists while making annual appearances at many of the world's major concert halls, commissioning spectacular new works, and maintaining an active recording agenda.


Anna Polonsky is widely in demand as a soloist and chamber musician. She has appeared with the Moscow Virtuosi, the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, the Memphis Symphony, the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, the St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble, and many others. Ms. Polonsky has collaborated with the Guarneri, Orion, Daedalus, and Shanghai Quartets, and with such musicians as Mitsuko Uchida, Yo-Yo Ma, David Shifrin, Richard Goode, Emanuel Ax, Arnold Steinhardt, Peter Wiley, and Jaime Laredo.

Jaime Laredo, Sharon Robinson and friends with Anna Polonsky, piano, and Nokuthula Ngwenyama, viola

Now in its 20th year, the Jupiter String Quartet derived its name from the most prominent planet in the sky. The astrological symbol for Jupiter resembles the number four. The musicians place a strong emphasis on developing relationships with future classical music audiences through educational performances within schools and other community centers. They believe that, because of the intensity of its interplay and communication, chamber music is one of the most effective ways of spreading an enthusiasm for “classical” music to new audiences.

The quartet has performed across the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia, and the Americas in some of the world’s finest halls, including New York City’s Carnegie Hall and the Lincoln Center, London’s Wigmore Hall, Boston’s Jordan Hall, Mexico City's Palacio de Bellas Artes, Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center and Library of Congress, Austria’s Esterhazy Palace, and Seoul’s Sejong Chamber Hall.

Chamber Music Monterey Bay

Apr 27, 2024

Chicago Piano Quartet

Feb 24, 2024

Nakamatsu Manasse Frautschi Trio

Jan 20, 2024

Maxwell Quartet

Apr 30, 2023

Daedalus Quartet with Soyeon Kate Lee, piano

Feb 26, 2023

Cuarteto Casals

Chamber Music Monterey Bay

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