Powerhouse Strings: Mendelssohn’s Octet & More
Eleven of the world’s most renowned string artists converge: violinists Carolin Widmann and Benjamin Beilman, bassist Nina Bernat, and the doubly dynamic Viano and Opus13 quartets! The World Premiere of Alistair Coleman’s evocative Ghost Art Canticles for string quartet & double bass is followed by Finnish superstar Olli Mustonen’s strikingly modern Nonetto II. Then, hang on to your seats for Mendelssohn’s monumental and beloved Octet for Strings interpreted by two acclaimed young string quartets.
6:30pm | Prelude Performance by local young artists
Our community partner, p:ear, will be tabling in the lobby for this performance.
CMNW Commission • World Premiere
Alistair Coleman’s Ghost Art Canticles has been commissioned by CMNW with generous support from Ravi Vedanayagam & Ursula Luckert.
Silver Sponsors:
Anonymous Friend of CMNW
Ronnie-Gail Emden & Andrew Wilson
Ravi Vedanayagam & Ursula Luckert
Patricia Reser Center for the Arts
Thursday, 7/17 • 7:30 pm PT
Program
Click on any piece of music below to learn more about it.
- ALISTAIR COLEMAN (b. 1998) “Ghost Art Canticles” for String Quartet & Double Bass (2025)
ALISTAIR COLEMAN (b. 1998)
Ghost Art Canticles for String Quartet & Double Bass (2025)I. Sunburst
II. Evensong
III. PerpetuaWORLD PREMIERE | CMNW COMMISSION
Ghost Art Canticles, composed for String Quartet and Double Bass, is inspired by Austin, the final work of American artist Ellsworth Kelly. The only building Kelly ever designed, Austin takes the form of a chapel with vibrant stained-glass windows, a cross-shaped layout, 12 abstract panels evocative of the Stations of the Cross, and other religious allusions. However, Kelly conceived Austin as a “secular chapel,” stripping away sacred function to create “a place of calm and light.” It embodies what The New Yorker describes as Kelly’s lifelong pursuit of Ghost Art: “a translation from reality into something fully real, itself, only different.”
Growing up singing in a local church choir, one of my earliest memories was hearing Bach’s organ music fill the church with a roar of sound. Writing a new piece for Chamber Music Northwest’s festival celebrating Bach made me reflect on how deeply his music, like mine, was influenced by the church. While Bach primarily wrote for liturgical settings, his music is now performed in concert halls, allowing performers and listeners to draw new, secular meanings. I see a parallel in Kelly’s Austin—a space where traces of religious symbols remain, but their purpose has shifted. Ghost Art Canticles imagines music inhabiting this in-between space, drawing from both Kelly and Bach, where spiritual symbols become afterimages—ghosts of their former selves—that inspire new meanings.
The first movement, Sunburst, begins with a simple idea that gradually expands through canons, echoing Bach’s contrapuntal techniques and shifting light patterns in Austin. The second movement, Evensong, is a chorale, a direct nod to Bach’s meditative works. The final movement, Perpetua, spins out in relentless motion, evoking the restless play of color and light within the chapel. This title refers to both moto perpetuo (perpetual motion) and lux perpetua, an “everlasting light” in sacred texts—an idea that reflects Bach’s timeless influence on my music and others.
Ghost Art Canticles was commissioned by Chamber Music Northwest with generous support from Ravi Vedanayagam & Ursula Luckert. The piece is written for, and dedicated to, Nina Bernat and the Viano Quartet.
—© Alistair Coleman
- OLLI MUSTONEN (b. 1967) Nonetto II (2000)
OLLI MUSTONEN (b. 1967)
Nonetto III. Inquieto
II. Allegro impetuoso
III. Adagio
IV. VivacissimoPianist, composer and conductor, for Olli Mustonen it’s all one thing, and he excels in all three playing an extraordinary role in shaping the musical world of today.
A regular on Australian and international stages as a concert pianist, Mustonen’s first instrument was the harpsichord, and perhaps that is where the crystal-clear sound in his compositions comes from, with a fascination with Baroque counterpoint placed side by side with modern techniques.
Mustonen’s Nonetto II for nine solo string players takes up ideas from the 17th and 18th centuries, with gorgeous, warmly expressive melodies and delicate interplay. Opening on a mysterious note, with tiny two-note iterations sounding alternately low and high, the work asserts itself with volleys of brash, energetic themes surrounded by more fragmented motifs. Where the serene slow third movement suggests a meditative stasis, the finale returns to ecstatic exultation, eventually building to a riveting rhythmic finale.
—© Courtesy of Omega Ensemble
- FELIX MENDELSSOHN Octet for Strings in E-flat Major, Op. 20
FELIX MENDELSSOHN (1809–1847)
Octet for Strings in E-flat Major, Op. 20I. Allegro moderato con fuoco
II. Andante
III. Scherzo: Allegro leggierissimo
IV. PrestoFelix Mendelssohn wrote the original Octet for Strings in E-flat Major (1825) when he only 16 years old. With this rule-bending, sophisticated feat, Mendelssohn stepped into his maturity as composer—not even Mozart was so brilliant at such a young age.
Mendelssohn’s Octet was inarguably the first of its kind, a work that integrates two string quartets and fully explores the potential textures, from unison passages to eight-part counterpoint. He may have been aware of one recent “double quartet” by Louis Spohr, but Spohr’s experimental work has doesn’t compare in scope; otherwise, there is no known precedent.
Mendelssohn’s scope is indicated first by the unbelievable breadth of the Allegro moderato ma con fuoco, surpassing 600 measures as it was first notated. At times the ebullient movement seems like a vast symphony, at others like an intimate quartet.
The remarkable third movement Scherzo is a perfect example of early Romanticism. Felix’s sister Fanny recalled that he based the music on a dream sequence from Goethe’s Faust, in which the author satirically presents cultural figures of his time such as philosophers, critics, and religious leaders as participants in a turbulent witches’ Sabbath. Accompaniment for the Sabbath is provided by an orchestra of flies, mosquitoes, frogs, and crickets. The festivities end at dawn, and everything vanishes, represented by the final violin line at the end of the movement.
In the Presto finale Mendelssohn pays tribute to two of his idols, Mozart and Beethoven, with a movement that contrasts lyrical melodies and incessant contrapuntal lines, ending in a symphonic outburst showing the power of eight instruments.
—© Ethan Allred
Artists
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Benjamin Beilman
Violin
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Benjamin Beilman is one of the leading violinists of his generation. He has won international praise for his passionate performances and deep, rich tone which The New York Times described as “muscular with a glint of violence”, and The Strad described as “pure poetry.“ Le Monde has described him as “a prodigious artist, who combines the gift of utmost sound perfection and a deep, delicate, intense, simmering sensitivity”.
Benjamin’s 2024/25 season includes his debut with the Berlin Philharmonic and Kirill Petrenko on tour in the US, and returns to the Chicago, Cincinnati, and Antwerp symphonies. He also makes his debut with the Belgian National Orchestra the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony. He will also tour with pianist Steven Osborne across the US.
In recent seasons, Beilman’s commitment to and passion for contemporary music has led to new works written for him by Frederic Rzewski, Gabriella Smith, and a concerto by Chris Rogerson. He has also given multiple performances of Jennifer Higdon’s violin concerto, and recorded Thomas Larcher’s concerto with Hannu Lintu and the Tonkünstler Orchester.
He has received many prestigious accolades including a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship, an Avery Fisher Career Grant, and a London Music Masters Award. He has also recorded works by Stravinsky, Janáček, and Schubert for Warner Classics. In 2022, he became one of the youngest artists to be appointed to the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music.
He performs with the ex-Balaković F. X. Tourte bow (c. 1820), and plays the “Ysaÿe” Guarneri del Gesù from 1740, generously on loan from the Nippon Music Foundation.
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Nina Bernat
Bass
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American double bassist Nina Bernat, acclaimed for her interpretive maturity, expressive depth and technical clarity, emerges onto the world stage with awards and accolades, thrilling audiences everywhere. She was hailed by Star Tribune as a “standout” for her recent concerto debut with the Minnesota Orchestra, praising her performance as “exhilarating, lovely and lyrical…technically precise and impressively emotive.”
In 2023, Nina was honored as a recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant and winner of the CAG Elmaleh Competition. Recent 1st prizes include the Barbash J.S. Bach String Competition, the Minnesota Orchestra Young Artist Competition, the Juilliard Double Bass Competition, and the 2019 International Society of Bassists Solo Competition.
Engaged in all aspects of double bass performance, she has been invited to perform as guest principal bassist with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and Oslo Philharmonic, serving under the batons of conductors such as András Schiff and Osmo Vänskä. Nina is in demand as a passionate chamber musician. She began her involvement with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center as a member of the Bowers Program in 2025. She has spent summers at Marlboro Music Festival, Verbier Festival, Music@Menlo, and Chamber Music Northwest.
She is quickly becoming a sought-after pedagogue, having given masterclasses at the Colburn School, Boston University Tanglewood Institute, and University of Texas at Austin, among others. She is on the faculty of Stony Brook University.
Nina performs on an instrument passed down from her father, Mark Bernat, attributed to Guadagnini.
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Alistair Coleman
Composer
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Alistair Coleman is a composer from Maryland and the 2023–25 Composer-in-Residence of Young Concert Artists. Recent commissions include concertos for violinist Soovin Kim and cellist Zuill Bailey, a trombone sonata for Joseph Alessi (premiered on tour in China and Japan), and Moonshot, premiered by the Abeo Quartet in collaboration with Glenstone Museum and the Smithsonian Institution.
The 2024–25 season features premieres at the Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall by percussionist Michael Yeung, a marimba concerto for Ji-Su Jung, and a commission from the New York Youth Symphony at Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium. Other projects include a European tour of a new chamber work for Philharmonische Gesellschaft Bremen’s 200th anniversary and a bass quintet for the Viano Quartet and Nina Bernat, commissioned by Chamber Music Northwest.
Recent highlights include performances by the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, Curtis Symphony Orchestra, and National Philharmonic; collaborations with pianists Alessio Bax, Gloria Chien, Avery Gagliano, and Janice Carissa in collaboration with Steinway; and commissions from Chamber Music Lexington and the Lake Champlain Festival. He has received three ASCAP Morton Gould Awards as well as prizes from Juilliard, American Composers Forum, the Society for New Music, and NPR.
In 2020, he founded a composition mentorship program with the Opportunity Music Project, in partnership with Carnegie Hall’s PlayUSA. He also serves on the Curtis Institute’s Musical Studies Faculty and teaches at Hidden Valley’s Emerging Composers Intensive.
A graduate of Curtis and Juilliard, Alistair begins PhD studies at Princeton University as a Roger Sessions Fellow in fall 2025.
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Isabelle Ai Durrenberger
Violin
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American violinist Isabelle Ai Durrenberger is praised for her imaginative performances and her ability to communicate with sincere artistry. Based in New York City, she is first violinist of the Aeolus Quartet and a recent graduate of Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect program.
An avid chamber musician, Durrenberger is recognized for her unique collaborative instincts. Recent engagements include concerts with Boston Chamber Music Society, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Chamber Music Northwest, Jupiter Chamber Players, The Knights, A Far Cry, and Marlboro Music Festival.
Durrenberger grew up in a musical home in Columbus, Ohio, and began playing piano at age four, beginning violin lessons three years later. At age 13, she began her studies with Jaime Laredo at the Cleveland Institute of Music. She attended Meadowmount School of Music for four years, graduated from high school a year early, and at age 16 began her undergraduate program in Cleveland where she continued receiving mentorship from Laredo. Other influences include Jennifer Koh, Sharon Robinson, Joan Kwuon, Jinjoo Cho, Jan Mark Sloman, and Jun Kim.
In 2022, she completed her graduate studies at the New England Conservatory in Boston with Soovin Kim and Don Weilerstein. Durrenberger has a private violin studio in New York City and serves on the violin faculty at the New England Conservatory Preparatory School in Boston, where she teaches violin and coaches chamber music.
Durrenberger performs on a 2020 Zygmuntowicz violin on private loan from a patron in New York City.
Upcoming Concerts & Events
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Aiden Kane
Viola
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American violist Aiden Kane has performed in North America, Europe, and Asia as a current member of the Viano Quartet, First Prize Laureates of the 2019 Banff International String Quartet Competition and recipients of the 2025 Avery Fisher Career Grant.
After leaving violin for the dark side, Aiden first studied viola with Daniel Foster through the National Symphony Orchestra’s Youth Fellowship Program. She subsequently earned a Bachelor’s and two Master’s degrees (in viola performance and chamber music studies, respectively) at the Colburn Conservatory of Music, where she studied with Paul Coletti. During her undergraduate years at Colburn, Aiden discovered her love for quartet life as the violist of the Calla Quartet, which received the Silver medal at the 2015 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition and presented Colburn’s inaugural Musical Encounters outreach program. Since she joined the Viano Quartet, Viano has won international competitions, weathered a pandemic, moved from one coast to another, studied at the Curtis Institute of Music in the Nina von Maltzahn String Quartet-in-Residence program, and joined the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Bowers Program—and Aiden loves quartet life even more for it all.
When she isn’t playing the viola, Aiden enjoys hiking, composing, and keeping an assortment of remarkably self-reliant houseplants.
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Daniel Thorell
Cello
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Daniel Thorell is a cellist from Stockholm, Sweden. Though only 26-years-old, he has already had great success as a soloist and chamber musician, both nationally and internationally. Praised for his mature and expressive music making, he is currently regarded as one of Scandinavia’s most promising young cellists.
He is a first-prize winner in no less than nine international competitions, most notably Rovere D’oro (2017), where he was also awarded a gold medal. In May of 2019, he was a major prize winner in the 54th Markneukirchen International Cello Competition. He was also a laureate at the sixth season of La Classe d’Excellence de Violoncell with Professor Gautier Capucon.
Born into a family of musicians, Daniel began playing the cello at the age of five. He made his debut as a soloist at the age of eleven, performing Saint-Saëns’s Cello Concerto in A Minor with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. Since then, he has performed regularly as a soloist with orchestras around Sweden, including the Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra.
Daniel is also an experienced chamber musician and since 2019 is a member of the Norwegian-based string quartet, Opus13. In 2022, they were awarded second prize in the Banff international string quartet competition and have performed at festivals such as Kamermuziek festival Utrecht, Risør kammermusikkfest, Valdres sommersymfoni, Midtåsen kulturfestival, and many more. In 2021, they made their debut at the Oslo Quartet Series.
Daniel recently finished his soloist diploma studies at the Norwegian Academy of Music with Professor Torleif Thedéen has studied with a number of renowned professors, including Jens-Peter Maintz, Danjulo Ishizaka, Maria Kliegel, Claudio Bohorquez, and Antonio Meneses. He is a recipient of numerous scholarships from foundations such as SWEA International Scholarship for the Arts and the Royal Swedish Academy of Music.
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Lucy Wang
Violin
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Canadian violinist Lucy Wang has garnered praise as an artist whose “technical prowess, tonal mastery, and stage presence can come as no surprise to anyone who has seen her work” (Peace Arch News). A native of Vancouver, she is a founding member of the Viano Quartet—First Prize Laureates of the 2019 Banff International String Quartet Competition and recent graduates of the Nina von Maltzahn Graduate String Quartet-in-Residence Program at the Curtis Institute of Music.
Lucy obtained her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Colburn Conservatory and has performed as soloist, chamber, and orchestral musician in venues such as Walt Disney Concert Hall, Wigmore Hall, Izumi Hall, Carnegie Hall, and Konzerthaus Berlin. Lucy has also given recitals with the Viano Quartet at Hong Kong’s Intimacy of Creativity Festival, the Banff International String Quartet Festival, Bravo!Vail Festival, Ottawa Chamberfest, and Minnesota Beethoven Festival, among others.
In addition to touring with the Viano Quartet, Lucy maintains an active individual presence on social media, with over 50 million views on her videos and over 600,000 followers across various platforms. Reaching people across six continents, Lucy aims to craft a unique path as an artist that builds bridges across different musical and cultural communities.
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Sonoko Miriam Welde
Violin
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Norwegian violinist Sonoko Miriam Welde (b. 1996) is winner of the “Virtuos” competition, the Norwegian Soloist Prize 2014, and the Equinor Classical Music Scholarship 2016.
As a soloist she has performed with orchestras such the Oslo Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic, Bergen Philharmonic, Norwegian Radio Orchestra, WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Bournemouth Symphony, and Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, and conductors including Andrew Litton, James Gaffigan, Han-Na Chang, Marta Gardolinska, Joshua Weilerstein, and Edward Gardner.
An enthusiastic chamber musician, Sonoko has been championed by Leif Ove Andsnes, with whom she performs regularly, and has also worked with Tabea Zimmermann, Clemens Hagen, Sergio Tiempo, Gidon Kremer, Alisa Weilerstein, Jonathan Biss, and Janine Jansen.
She is a founding member of the string quartet, Opus13, who took second prize in the 2022 Banff International String Quartet Competition.
In 2021, she released her debut album of Bruch and Barber violin concertos and The Lark Ascending with the Oslo Philharmonic on LAWO Classics. It was nominated for the Norwegian “Spellemannprisen” in the classical music category and received rave reviews from publications such as Gramophone, BBC Music Magazine, and The Strad.
Sonoko studied with Janine Jansen in Sion, where she also had lessons with Denis Kozhukhin. She has also studied with Stephan Barratt-Due in Oslo and Kolja Blacher in Berlin. In 2018-2020 she was part of the Crescendo Mentoring Program.
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Carolin Widmann
Violin
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A wonderfully versatile musician, Carolin Widmann’s activities span the great classical concerti, new commissions specially written for her, solo recitals, a wide variety of chamber music and period instrument performances, including play/direction from the violin.
Widmann was awarded the Bayerischer Staatspreis for music in 2017, honouring her individuality and exceptional musicianship. Widmann was also the recipient of an International Classical Music Award (Concerto category) for her critically acclaimed recording of both Mendelssohn’s and Schumann’s Violin Concertos with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, released in August 2016 by ECM and which Widmann herself conducted from the violin.
Named ‘Musician of the Year’ at the International Classical Music Awards 2013, Ms Widmann has played with Berliner Philharmoniker, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre National de France, Czech Philharmonic, Swedish Radio Symphony, Vienna Radio Symphony, London Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, and Bayerische Rundfunk with distinguished conductors such as Sir Simon Rattle, Riccardo Chailly, Edward Gardner, Vladimir Jurowski, Sakari Oramo, Daniel Harding, François-Xavier Roth, Santtu-Matias Rouvali and Jukka-Pekka Saraste. She also appears at such widely known festivals as Musikfest Berlin, Salzburger Festspiele, Lucerne Festival, Edinburgh International Festival, Prague Spring International Festival, Pau Casals Festival, and Festival d’Automne in Paris.
Carolin debuted with an extensive number of orchestras over the 2024/25 season, including with the Danish National Symphony, Seoul Philharmonic, Helsinki Philharmonic, Royal Scottish National Orchestra and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Further highlights included the Robert Gerhard concerto with Orquestra Sinfònica de Barcelona, a Kurt Weill inspired play-direct programme with the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris featuring Ute Lemper, a tribute to Kaaja Saariaho with SWR Symphonieorchester, and the UK premiere of Jörg Widmann’s Violin Concerto No. 2, a piece written for and dedicated to her, with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. She is also the Fondazione Arturo Toscanini’s artist-in-residence for the 24/25 season.
Chamber music projects for the season include two recitals at the Pierre Boulez Saal; a quartet programme with Nils Mönkemeyer, Julian Steckel, and William Youn, as well as a solo project for violin and electronics; and a return to the Alte Oper Frankfurt.
Carolin Widmann is playing a G.B. Guadagnini violin from 1782 which is on loan from a Charitable Trust.
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Tate Zawadiuk
Cello
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Canadian cellist Tate Zawadiuk is both an engaging soloist and founding member of the Viano Quartet. The ensemble won first prize at the 2019 Banff International String Quartet Competition and has performed internationally in venues such as Wigmore Hall, Berlin Konzerthaus, Flagey, and Bremen Die Glocke.
As a soloist, Tate has performed with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, the Vancouver Philharmonic, New Westminster Symphony, Richmond Symphony Orchestra, and Vancouver Youth Symphony Orchestra. He has collaborated with world-renowned artists such as Emanuel Ax, James Ehnes, Marc-André Hamelin, Inon Barnatan, Clive Greensmith, Scott St. John, Noah Bendix-Balgley, Ida Kavafian, Steven Tenenbom, and Johannes Moser.
Tate is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music as a member of the Nina von Maltzahn Graduate String Quartet-in-Residence. He holds both bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Colburn Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Clive Greensmith and Ronald Leonard.
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Hao Zhou
Violin
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“Personal, impassioned, courageous, and unostentatiously brilliant” (Musical America), American violinist Hao Zhou rose to international acclaim as both the Grand Laureate and Audience Favorite of the 2019 Concours Musical International de Montréal and a first-prize winner of the 2019 Banff International String Quartet Competition.
An accomplished soloist and chamber musician, Hao made his Carnegie Hall debut at the age of 12. He made solo appearances with the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, Downey Symphony Orchestra, and Peninsula Symphony Orchestra alongside conductors such as Esa-Pekka Salonen, Alexander Shelley, and Thierry Fischer. Hao is a founding member of the award-winning Viano Quartet and has performed worldwide alongside such internationally distinguished artists as Emanuel Ax, Roberto Diaz, James Ehnes, Noah Bendix-Balgley, and Marc André-Hamelin. In 2023-24, Hao will be performing recitals all over the world in cities such as New York, Hong Kong, Nova Scotia, Buffalo, and Banff.
Hao is a recent graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music as a member of the Nina von Maltzhan Graduate String Quartet-in-Residence. He has been invited to perform at the Kronberg Academy Festival, Bravo! Vail, Bard Music Festival, and at Chamber Music Northwest. He was the first recipient of the Frances Rosen Violin Prize at the Colburn Conservatory, where he studied with Martin Beaver and received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees.
Hao plays on a 1783 Joseph and Antonio Gagliano violin, on generous loan from the Aftergood Family.
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Opus13
String Quartet, Protégé
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Sonoko Miriam Welde, violin
Edvard Erdal, violin
Albin Uusijärvi, viola
Daniel Thorell, celloThe Swedish-Norwegian string quartet, Opus13, is one of Europe’s most promising, up-and-coming young string quartets. Formed in 2014, the ensemble now comprises Sonoko Miriam Welde, Edvard Erdal, Albin Uusijärvi, and Daniel Thorell. They were 2nd prize winners of the prestigious Banff International String Quartet Competition 2022. In 2023, they received the Norwegian Equinor Classical Music Award, a coveted prize of one million Norwegian Crowns (approx. $96,000). Previous recipients of the award include Leif Ove Andsnes, Lise Davidsen, and Vilde Frang.
They have guested concert series and festivals such as the International Chamber Music Festival Utrecht in the Netherlands, Yeulmaru and Yonsei Chamber Music Festivals in South Korea, Rusk Festival in Finland, Swiss Chamber Concerts, and most of the major chamber music festivals in Norway, including Bergen International Festival, Stavanger, Rosendal, Trondheim, and Risør Chamber Music Festivals. Highlights in 2024 included debuts in Scotland and the United States.
Opus13 has collaborated with international top musicians such as Janine Jansen, Olli Mustonen, Julian Bliss, Alisa Weilerstein, Tabea Zimmermann, Jonathan Biss, and Konstantin Heidrich. They are mentored by Berit Cardas and Bjørg Lewis of the Vertavo Quartet, and have benefitted from masterclasses with many of the world’s leading chamber musicians, including members of the Belcea Quartet, Quatuor Ébène, Artemis Quartett, Oslo String Quartet, and Quatuor Mosaïques.
In their early years, Opus13 received invaluable support and performing experience from the Oslo Quartet Series’ Talent Program and the Crescendo Mentoring Program.
The Opus13s are Founders and Artistic Directors of Vinterspill på Lillehammer, a chamber music festival in the winter town of Lillehammer.
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Viano Quartet
String Ensemble
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Lucy Wang, violin
Hao Zhou, violin
Aiden Kane, viola
Tate Zawadiuk, celloPraised for their “virtuosity, visceral expression, and rare unity of intention” (Boston Globe), the Viano Quartet is one of the most sought-after ensembles today and recipients of the prestigious 2025 Avery Fisher Career Grant. Since soaring to international acclaim as the first-prize winner at the 13th Banff International String Quartet Competition, they have traveled to nearly every major city across the globe, captivating audiences in New York, London, Berlin, Hong Kong, Vancouver, Paris, Beijing, Toronto, Lucerne, and Los Angeles. They are currently in-residence at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Bowers Program from 2024-2027.
During the 2025 summer season, the quartet will debut at Klavier-Festival Ruhr, CMS Summer Evenings, Tippet Rise, and Saratoga Performing Arts Center. Their many return visits include Music@Menlo, Mt. Desert Festival of Chamber Music, and MISQA. Their latest album, Voyager, was released with Platoon Records in Spring 2025.
The Viano Quartet has collaborated with world-class musicians including Emanuel Ax, Fleur Barron, Sir Stephen Hough, Miloš Karadaglić, Mahan Esfahani, and Marc-André Hamelin. Dedicated advocates of music education, they have given classes at institutions such as Northwestern University, University of Victoria, Colburn Academy, Duke University, and SMU Meadows School of the Arts. Each member of the quartet is grateful to the interminable support from their mentors at the Curtis Institute and Colburn Conservatory, including members of the Dover, Guarneri, and Tokyo string quartets.
The name “Viano” reflects the unity of four string instruments acting as one, much like a piano, where harmony and melody intertwine.