astralartists.org/artist/vera-quartet

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Vera Quartet, string quartet

Biography

Since its formation in 2015, the Vera Quartet has quickly established itself as one of the most exciting ensembles of its generation. The Grand Prize winner of the 2017 Plowman and 2017 Yellow Springs chamber music competitions, the Vera Quartet has been named the String Quartet-in-Residence at the Curtis Institute of Music for 2018-2020. A winner of Astral’s 2018 National Auditions, the Quartet also won Second Prize at the 2017 M-Prize Chamber Arts Competition as well as the St. Lawrence Award at the 2018 Wigmore Hall String Quartet Competition. With its members hailing from Spain, and the U.S., the ensemble shares a deep commitment to exploring and programming the music of its roots along with the great masterworks of the string quartet repertoire. In early 2016, the Vera Quartet held a residency at the Beethovenhaus in Bonn, Germany, and since then has embarked on tours of South Korea and Spain. While serving as the Graduate Quartet-in-Residence at Indiana’s Jacobs School of Music (from 2016-2018, under the mentorship of the Pacifica Quartet), they collaborated with the IU New Music Ensemble, performing with world-renowned pipa player Wu Man, as part of the China Remixed Festival. They also partnered with the IU Latin American Music Center, furthering their mission of bringing the music of Latin American composers to audiences. The Vera Quartet participated in outreach projects in the Bloomington area and beyond. They recorded pieces for the album Bloomingsongs, produced by the Jacobs School of Music’s “Musical Beginnings” program for children, and have partnered with Bloomington’s Musical Arts Youth Organization to teach and coach chamber music with members of its youth orchestra.

In 2017, the Vera Quartet took part in the Robert Mann String Quartet Seminar and the Juilliard String Quartet Seminar, and was one of five artists selected by NPR’s “Performance Today” as a Young Artist in Residence. The Quartet also taken part in the Chamber Music Residency program at the Banff Centre, and in 2017 attended the Center for Advanced Quartet Studies at the Aspen Music Festival, where they worked closely with composer Augusta Read Thomas and gave the Aspen premiere of her piece for string quartet and percussion quartet, “Selene.” In the summer of 2018, the Veras participated in the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival and the McGill International String Quartet Academy. The Vera Quartet has coached with the Pacifica Quartet, and has worked with members of the Juilliard, Cleveland, Brentano, St. Lawrence, Tokyo, American, Mendelssohn, and London-Haydn quartets, as well as with Atar Arad, Mauricio Fuks, and Peter Stumpf. For presenters, please include: “Vera Quartet appears courtesy of Astral Artists.” When editing please do not delete references to Astral. DECEMBER 2018 (Please destroy any previously dated material.)

Photo: Ryan Brandenberg Visit astralartists.org to download hi-res images of this artist.