PORTRAITS

Viano Quartet

As a final artistic statement of their time at Curtis, the Viano Quartet presents PORTRAITS, an intimate view of the string quartet that invites listeners to join the four young artists on an intensely personal and emotional journey.

PORTRAITS includes companion video performances of each work that offer viewers an opportunity to witness the energy and enthusiasm of the ensemble as they bring this music to life.

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PORTRAITS is available on all major music stores including Apple Music Classical and Spotify.

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PORTRAITS

The Viano Quartet’s debut recording captures the heightened passion, dramatic depth, and richly hued sound palette of four iconic works from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The quartet briefly describes the various scenes in PORTRAITS as follows:

  • The first movement of Schubert’s “Death and the Maiden” is a profound battle between light and dark, and we aim to convey this narrative through every note. The finale is a tarantella, which is a dance of hysteria, that victims experience upon being bitten by a venomous tarantula.

  • Florence Price’s quartet in G major’s slow movement evokes the warmth and comfort of home, making it a poignant and universal experience that we love to share with our audiences.

  • Known to have moved Tolstoy to tears, Tchaikovsky’s slow movement from his String Quartet No. 1 allows us to share our most sensitive playing with our audiences. It is a testament to our love for beautiful melodic writing and our ensemble’s quest to create a sound that is both lush and tender.

  • In Ginastera’s Quartet No. 1, we thrive on creating a massive sound and an endless supply of energy. In this regard, the quartet is high octane fuel that powers us to play fast and furiously.

As the Viano Quartet concludes its student residency at Curtis, this thoughtfully curated playlist serves as a celebration of the ensemble’s tenure at the school and an exciting introduction to one of the most sought-after contemporary quartets in classical music.

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Viano Quartet

  • Praised for their “virtuosity, visceral expression, and rare unity of intention” (Boston Globe), the Viano Quartet are one of the most sought-after performing young ensembles today and currently in-residence at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Bowers Program from 2024-2027. Since winning First Prize at the 2019 Banff International String Quartet Competition, they have traveled to nearly every major city across the globe, captivating audiences in New York, London, Berlin, Vancouver, Paris, Beijing, Toronto, Lucerne, and Los Angeles.

    The quartet was named the inaugural June Goldsmith Quartet-in-Residence for the Music in the Morning series in Vancouver until 2025, where their focus will be to commission new works and lead extensive community engagement initiatives. The quartet has also held residencies at the Curtis Institute, Colburn Conservatory, Northern Michigan University, and Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University.

    Summer 2023 brings re-invitations to Chamber Music Northwest, the Bravo! Vail Festival and BISQFest, along with appearances at the Intimacy of Creativity Festival in Hong Kong, Ottawa Chamberfest, Minnesota Beethoven Festival, Strings Music Festival, Highlands-Cashiers and Mt. Desert Festivals ofChamber Music, as well as Bay Chamber Concerts. During the 23/24 season the quartet can be heard in Canada, Arizona, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Florida, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, Maryland,Utah, New York and California.

    The quartet achieved incredible success in their formative years, with an unbroken streak of top prizes at major competitions. In addition to their career-defining achievement at the 2019 Banff International String Quartet Competition, they also received the Grand Prize at the 2019 ENKOR International Music Competition and second prize at the 2019 Yellow Springs Chamber Music Competition. At the 2018 Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition they received Third Prize, the Haydn Prize for the best performance of a Haydn quartet, and the Sidney Griller Award for the best performance of the compulsory work, Thomas Ades’ “The Four Quarters”. They received the Silver Medal at the 2018 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and Third Prize at the 9th Osaka International Chamber Music Competition in 2017.

    The Viano Quartet has collaborated with world-class musicians such as pianists Emanuel Ax, Marc-André Hamelin, Inon Barnatan and Elisso Virsaladze, violists Paul Coletti and Paul Neubauer, violinist Noah Bendix-Balgley, vocalist Hila Plitmann and clarinetist David Shifrin. Their chief mentors include faculty of the Curtis Institute and Colburn Conservatory, as well as members of the Dover, Guarneri, and Tokyo string quartets. Past summers have been spent at the Ravinia Steans Chamber Music Institute, the St.Lawrence String Quartet Seminar, the Festival d’Aix en Provence, the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, and the McGill International String Quartet Academy.

    The name “Viano” was created to describe the four individual instruments in a string quartet interacting as one. Each of the four instruments begins with the letter “v”, and like a piano, all four string instruments together play both harmony and melody, creating a unified instrument called the “Viano”.