Calder Quartet bio

The Calder Quartet captivates audiences by exploring a broad spectrum of repertoire, always striving to fulfill the composer’s vision in its performances. The group members’ distinctive artistry is exemplified by a musical curiosity brought to everything they perform and has led them to be called “one of America’s most satisfying—and most enterprising—quartets” (Los Angeles Times).

Winner of the prestigious 2014 Avery Fisher Career Grant, the Calder Quartet is known for the commissioning and recording of some of today’s best emerging composers. In addition to performances of the complete Beethoven and Bartók quartets, the quartet’s dedication to commissioning new works has given rise to premieres of dozens of string quartets by composers who include Peter Eötvös, Andrew Norman, Christopher Rouse, Ted Hearne, and Christopher Cerrone. Inspired by innovative American artist Alexander Calder, the Calder Quartet’s desire to bring immediacy and context to the works it performs creates an artfully crafted musical experience.

The quartet has released recordings on Pentatone, Signum Classics, BMC Records, Bridge Records, and E1 Entertainment, recording the quartets of Peter Eötvös with Audrey Luna, Thomas Adès’s chamber music with the composer at the piano, early works of Terry Riley, the chamber music of Christopher Rouse, Mozart piano concertos with Anne-Marie McDermott, and most recently works by Cage, Paul Wiancko, Eastman, and Beethoven.

In 2011, the Calder Quartet launched a nonprofit dedicated to furthering its efforts in commissioning, presenting, recording, and education, collaborating with the Getty Museum, Segerstrom Center for the Arts, and the Barbican in London. The quartet formed at the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music and continued studies at the Colburn Conservatory of Music and The Juilliard School, receiving the Artist Diploma in Chamber Music Studies as the Juilliard Graduate Resident String Quartet. The quartet regularly conducts master classes and has taught at the Colburn School, Oberlin College and Conservatory, The Juilliard School, Cleveland Institute of Music, University of Cincinnati College–Conservatory of Music, and USC’s Thornton School of Music.