Upcoming Artists

The Miró Quartet

Miró Quartet

October 27, 2024 (4:00 p.m.)

The Miró Quartet is one of America’s most celebrated string quartets, praised as "furiously committed" by The New Yorker and recognized for its "exceptional tonal focus and interpretive intensity" by the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Marking 30 years together in 2025, the GRAMMY®-nominated ensemble has performed throughout the world on the most prestigious concert stages, earning accolades from critics and audiences alike. Based in Austin, TX and thriving in the area’s storied music scene, the Miró Quartet takes pride in finding new ways to communicate with audiences of all backgrounds while cultivating the longstanding tradition of chamber music.

During their 30th anniversary season, the Miró Quartet appears at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC, the Clark Library in Los Angeles, Music@Menlo, Denver Friends of Chamber Music, Chamber Music Detroit, Chamber Music Sedona, Chamber Music Tulsa, String Theory at the Hunter and Hunter Museum of American Art, Music Toronto, International Classical Concerts, BIG ARTS, Blanco Performing Arts, Forbes Center for the Performing Arts, and more. As part of their 30th anniversary season, the Miró Quartet will also be launching new collaborations with saxophonist and actor Steven Banks and bass-baritone Joseph Parrish.

Rodolfo Leone

November 17, 2024 (4:00 p.m.)

Described as a “true sound philosopher” (Oberösterreichische Nachrichten), the brilliant Italian-born pianist Rodolfo Leone, whose career was formerly supported by the Amron-Sutherland Fund for Young Pianists at the Colburn School, was the first-prize winner of the 2017 International Beethoven Piano Competition in Vienna. Rodolfo released his debut album on the Austrian label Gramola in May 2018 and “Piano Jewels” featuring works of Muzio Clementi on Naxos in January 2022.

Rodolfo’s recent seasons include a collaboration with James Conlon and LA Opera and debuts with North Carolina Symphony (Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1) conducted by Michelle Di Russo, San Diego Symphony (Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1) conducted by Michael Francis, Bozeman Symphony (Ravel’s PIano Concerto in G major) conducted by Norman Huynh, Pasadena Symphony (Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21) with conductor David Lockington, and Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra (Beethoven’s Concerto No. 5, “Emperor”) with Sascha Goetzel; he also performed Beethoven’s Triple Concerto in Walt Disney Hall under the baton of Xian Zhang.

Ying Quartet

February 2, 2025 (4:00 p.m.)

The Grammy Award-winning Ying Quartet occupies a position of unique prominence in the classical music realm, combining brilliantly communicative performances with a fearlessly imaginative view of chamber music in today's world. Now in its third decade, the Quartet has established itself as an ensemble of the highest musical qualifications. The Quartet’s performances regularly take place in many of the world's most important concert halls; at the same time, the Ying’s belief that concert music can also be a meaningful part of everyday life has drawn the foursome to perform in settings as diverse as the workplace, schools, juvenile prisons, and the White House.

The Ying Quartet first came to professional prominence in the early 1990s as the first recipient of an NEA Rural Residence Grant which led to it serving as the resident quartet of Jesup, Iowa, a farm town of 2,000 people. Playing before audiences of six to six hundred in homes, schools, churches, and banks, the Quartet had its first opportunities to use music and creative endeavor to help build community and authentic human connection. The Quartet considers its time in Jesup the foundation of its present musical life and goals.

Pacifica Quartet

March 2, 2024 (4:00 p.m.)

With a career spanning three decades, the multiple Grammy Award-winning Pacifica Quartet has achieved international recognition as one of the finest chamber ensembles performing today. The Quartet is known for its virtuosity, exuberant performance style, and often-daring repertory choices. Having served as quartet-in-residence at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music for over a decade, the Quartet was also previously the quartet-in-residence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 2021, the Pacifica Quartet received a second Grammy Award for Contemporary Voices, an exploration of music by three Pulitzer Prize-winning composers: Shulamit Ran, Jennifer Higdon, and Ellen Taaffe Zwilich.

Formed in 1994, the Pacifica Quartet quickly won chamber music’s top competitions, including the 1998 Naumburg Chamber Music Award. In 2002 the ensemble was honored with Chamber Music America’s Cleveland Quartet Award and the appointment to Lincoln Center’s The Bowers Program (formerly CMS Two), and in 2006 was awarded a prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant. With its powerful energy and captivating, cohesive sound, the Pacifica has established itself as the embodiment of the senior American quartet sound.

May 4, 2025 (4:00 PM)

William Hagen

The riveting American violinist William Hagen has appeared as a soloist with many of the world's great orchestras including the Chicago Symphony, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, San Francisco Symphony, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, and many more. Already a seasoned international performer who has won friends around the world, William has been hailed as a “brilliant virtuoso…a standout” (The Dallas Morning News) whose playing is “… captivating, floating delicately above the orchestra” (Chicago Classical Review). He was the third-prize winner of the 2015 Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition, one of the highest-ranking Americans ever in the prestigious competition. William performs on the 1732 “Arkwright Lady Rebecca Sylvan” Antonio Stradivari, and on a violin bow by Francois Xavier Tourte, both on generous loan from the Rachel Barton Pine Foundation.

Hagen’s recent performances include appearances with the Detroit Symphony and Utah Symphony, and performances at the Brevard Music Center & Festival and Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. Hagen’s 2024-25 season highlights include performances for the Richmond Symphony conducted by Valentina Peleggi, Lubbock Symphony under the direction of David Cho, Bozeman Symphony under the direction of Norman Huynh, and Pasadena Symphony conducted by Brett Mitchell.

ANDREI IONIȚǍ

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The Gold Medal-winner at the 2015 XV International Tchaikovsky Competition, Andrei Ioniță is one of the most admired cellists of his generation, called “one of the most exciting cellists to have emerged for a decade,” by The Times of London. A versatile musician focused on giving gripping, deeply felt performances, Andrei has been recognized for his passionate musicianship and technical finesse. His debut album on Orchid Classics combined a Brett Dean world-premiere with Bach and Kodály, prompting Gramophone to declare him “a cellist of superb skill, musical imagination and a commitment to music of our time.”

Andrei made his U.S. debut in 2017 with recitals in Chicago and Washington, D.C., and gave his New York debut recital in Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall. Previous season highlights include performances with the Chicago Symphony, Gewandhaus Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, Münchner Philharmoniker, Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, BBC Philharmonic, Danish National Symphony, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, San Diego Symphony, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony, and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. He has worked with famous conductors including Herbert Blomstedt, Cristian Macelaru, Sylvain Cambreling, Kent Nagano, Omer Meir Wellber, John Storgårds, Joanna Mallwitz, and Ruth Reinhardt. He has given recitals at Konzerthaus Berlin, Elbphilharmonie, Zurich Tonhalle, LAC Lugano, and L’Auditori in Barcelona, as well as at the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Schleswig-Holstein, Verbier, and Martha Argerich Festivals. Andrei Ioniță’s exceptional talent makes him a versatile and sought-after performer of chamber music. In his concerts, he joins forces with Martha Argerich, Christian Tetzlaff, Sergei Babayan, and Steven Isserlis, among others.

ANTON NEL

Anton Nel

Winner of the 1987 Naumburg Internaonal Piano Compeon at Carnegie Hall, Anton Nel continues to tour internationally as a recitalist, concerto soloist, chamber musician, and teacher. Highlights in the U.S. include performances with the Cleveland Orchestra, and the Chicago, San Francisco, Dallas, Seale, and Detroit Symphonies as well as recitals coast to coast. Overseas he has appeared at the Wigmore Hall in London, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, major venues in China and Korea and undertakes regular tours to South Africa. Much sought after as a chamber musician he regularly appears with some of the world’s finest instrumentalists at festivals on four continents. He holds the Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long Endowed Chair at the University of Texas at Austin, is currently also a Vising Professor at the Manhattan School of Music, and annually presents masterclasses at the Glenn Gould School in Toronto. During the summers he is on the arst-facules at the Aspen Music Festival and School, the Oxford Music Academy in Quebec, and at the Steans Institute at the Ravinia Festival. Mr. Nel also frequently performs as harpsichordist and fortepianist. His recordings include four solo CDs, several chamber music recordings, and works for piano and orchestra by Franck, Faure, Saint-Saens, and Edward Burlingame Hill. The Johannesburg-born Mr. Nel is a graduate of the University of the Witwatersrand, where he studied with Adolph Hallis and the University of Cincinna where he worked with Bela Siki and Frank Weinstock.