Calidore String Quartet
Tue, Feb 27, 7:30 pm
Alice Tully Hall
2 hours, including intermission
Our Winter Festival presents four spectacular ensembles whose artistry is lighting the way for the next generation of string quartets.
An alum of CMS’s Bowers Program and now in its 12th season, the Calidore String Quartet has garnered recognition as one of the world’s foremost interpreters of the string quartet repertoire. Beginning our Winter Festival, the Calidore offers a program spanning from Vienna to London, concluding with Britten’s powerful Second Quartet, composed as a commemoration of the death of Purcell.
Program
Bach/Mozart
Selections from The Well-Tempered Clavier, K. 405
(c. 1740, arr. 1782)Felix Mendelssohn
(1809–1847)Quartet in E minor for Strings, Op. 44, No. 2
(1837)Henry Purcell
(1659–1695)Chacony in G minor for String Quartet
(arr. Britten) (c. 1678, arr. 1948, rev. 1963)Benjamin Britten
(1913–1976)Quartet No. 2 in C major for Strings, Op. 36
(1945)
Calidore String Quartet
The Calidore String Quartet has been recognized for achieving an extraordinary cohesion of individual artistry and collective expression—as the Washington Post wrote, “four more individual musicians are unimaginable, yet these speak, breathe, think and feel as one.” Their artistry reflects a profound engagement with both the classical canon and the evolving language of 21st-century chamber music.
The Calidore has performed at many of the world’s greatest concert halls, including Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and Wigmore Hall, and festivals such as the BBC Proms, Verbier, Ravinia, and Caramoor. Collaborators have included Anne-Sophie Mutter, Joshua Bell, Anthony McGill, Marc-André Hamelin, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, David Finckel and Wu Han, the Emerson String Quartet, and Quatuor Ébène, among others.
Dedicated advocates for today’s music, the Calidore has premiered works by Caroline Shaw, John Williams, Anna Clyne, and Gabriela Montero, to name a few. During the 2025–26 season, they gave the world premiere of a new quartet, Arietta by Mark-Anthony Turnage, at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts.
In 2026, the Calidore released an all-American album, American Tapestry on Signum Records, featuring music by Samuel Barber, Wynton Marsalis, Erich Korngold, and John Williams. In 2025, they unveiled a landmark box set of the complete Beethoven string quartets, recorded for Signum following their live cycle at CMS during the 2024–25 season.
Formed in 2010 at the Colburn School in Los Angeles, the Calidore has won top prizes at major US chamber music competitions, including the Fischoff, Coleman, Chesapeake, and Yellow Springs. In 2016, they won the Grand Prize of the inaugural M-Prize International Chamber Music Competition as well as the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship. Additional honors include the Avery Fisher Career Grant, the Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award, and selection as BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists. They are alums of CMS’s Bowers Program.
Currently the Distinguished String Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Delaware, the Calidore has also held residencies at the University of Toronto, University of Michigan, and Stony Brook University.