Like artist M.C. Escher, for whom it is named, the Escher String Quartet creates its own ‘impossible constructions’, simultaneously showcasing each instrument’s part while melding them into one, offering audiences unusual views and new perspectives. As The Guardian noted, the ensemble displays “fabulous unanimity, tonal warmth and care over detail.”

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Escher String Quartet with Jordan Bak, viola

California Institute of Technology

“Revered like rock stars within the early music scene” (New York Times), Quicksilver Baroque Ensemble brings together top North American historically-informed performers. Described as “drop dead gorgeous with a wonderful interplay of timbres,” (Early Music America), Quicksilver vibrantly explores the rich chamber music repertoire from the early modern period to the High Baroque.

Quicksilver Baroque Ensemble

Students at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest (including founding cellist András Fejér) formed the Takács Quartet in 1975, and soon won prizes at major European competitions. The Takács became the first string quartet to be awarded the Wigmore Hall Medal (2014) and also the first string quartet to be inducted into Gramophone’s Hall of Fame (2012). The quartet members are Christoffersen Faculty Fellows at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Takács Quartet

Hailing from opposite corners of the globe, the members of the Merz Trio met in the middle of a snow storm in NYC in December 2016, and now spend the majority of their lives together, rehearsing and traveling.

Merz Trio

Formed in 2011, the Castalian String Quartet has distinguished itself as one of today’s most dynamic young quartets. Appointed the inaugural Hans Keller String Quartet in Residence at the Oxford University Faculty of Music in 2021, it also received the Royal Philharmonic Society’s 2019 Young Artists Award.

Castalian String Quartet

Since its founding in 1994, the Zemlinsky Quartet has become a much lauded example of the Czech string quartet tradition. The quartet has won the First Grand Prize in the Bordeaux String Quartet Competition (2010) and also enjoyed a string of top competition prizes that include Banff, Prague Spring, and London, where it was also awarded the Audience Prize. It has also been the recipient of the Alexander Zemlinsky Advancement Award.

Zemlinsky Quartet

Praised by the New York Times for its “deep reserves of virtuosity and irrepressible instinct,” the Calidore String Quartet won grand prizes in virtually every U.S. chamber music competition (including Coleman) within two years of its founding at the Colburn School in Los Angeles.

Calidore String Quartet

Beckman Auditorium

The Academy of St Martin in the Fields is one of the world’s premier chamber orchestras, known for its fresh, brilliant interpretations. The wind ensemble is a specially created group composed of principal players of the orchestra.

Academy of St Martin in the Fields Wind Ensemble

The San Diego Union-Tribune praised the trio’s “wonderful…resonant…and compelling” artistry, and the St. Paul Pioneer Press noted that this ensemble is also “almost as much fun to watch as to hear.”

Wu Han, Philip Setzer, and David Finckel

The “new” Pražák Quartet is the evolution of the Pražák Quartet, which has performed throughout the world for nearly 50 years.

Pražák Quartet

The group’s awards include a stunning sweep of all prizes at the 2013 Banff International String Quartet Competition and the grand and first prizes at the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition.

Dover Quartet at the Coleman's

“Passion, precision, warmth, a gold blend: these are the trademarks of this excellent Israeli string quartet.” 

Such was the New York Times’ impression of the Jerusalem Quartet. Since the ensemble’s founding in 1993, the musicians have embarked on a journey of growth and maturation.

Jerusalem Quartet at the Coleman's

The Miró Quartet will be joined by Martin Beaver, violin and Clive Greensmith, cello for a performance of Brahms’s sextets. The quartet won the Barstow Award for Strings at the 1996 Coleman Competition, and is based in Austin, Texas, where it serves as quartet-in-residence at the Butler School of Music at the University of Texas, Austin.Messrs. Beaver (from 2002) and Greensmith (from 1999) were members of the Tokyo String Quartet until it disbanded in 2013. Both gentlemen are currently on the faculty of the Colburn School in Los Angeles and founding members of the Montrose Trio.

Miró String Quartet with Martin Beaver, Violin; and Clive Greensmith, Cello

“We need the inspiration of the audience,” said cellist Raphaël Merlin of the esteemed <a>Quatuor Ébène</a>, which returns for its third performance with Coleman. These words were one of the central ideas of the “Beethoven Around the World” project, during which the quartet recorded Beethoven’s 16 string quartets on six continents between May 2019 and January 2020. These recordings were also part of the quartet’s 20th anniversary celebrations. Quatuor Ébène’s albums have received numerous awards, including Gramophone, BBC Music Magazine, and the Midem Classic Award.

Quatuor Ébène

In the short time since winning fi rst prize and sweeping four of the special prizes at the 2018 Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition in London, the <a>Esmé Quartet</a> has made a sensational entrance into the string quartet world, performing at renowned concert halls and festivals around the world, and has been named the fi rst Artists-in-Residence at the Lotte Concert Hall, in Seoul, South Korea. Based in Germany, the quartet was formed in 2016 at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln (Cologne), Germany, and is comprised of four Korean musicians who were already friends and shared common interests and passions in music, the arts, and life. The name of the quartet—Esmé—is borrowed from an old French word meaning “beloved.”

Esmé Quartet

Please Note: The planned February concert by Cuarteto Casals has been canceled, due to revised event guidance from Caltech, the university which hosts our concerts.</h4>
<del>Founded in 1997 at the Escuela Reina Sofi a in Madrid, <a>Cuarteto Casals</a> has been a repeat guest at the world’s most prestigious concert halls including Carnegie Hall, Philharmonie Cologne, Cité de la Musique Paris, Schubertiade in Schwarzenberg, and Concertgebouw Amsterdam, among many others around the world.</del>
<del>The members have recently added a highly praised recording of the Beethoven Quartets to their extensive discography on Harmonia Mundi. Gramophone Magazine, in reviewing the second volume of their Beethoven recordings, said “These interpretations don’t just strip off the varnish; they tear off the gilded frame, X-ray the canvas, and light it in neon.”

Coleman Chamber Music Association

Apr 14, 2024

Escher String Quartet with Jordan Bak, viola

Mar 10, 2024

Quicksilver Baroque Ensemble

Feb 18, 2024

Takács Quartet

Jan 21, 2024

Merz Trio

Nov 12, 2023

Castalian String Quartet

Coleman Chamber Music Association

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