Seattle Chamber Music Society Announces 2026 Summer Festival

Seattle Chamber Music Society Announces 2026 Summer Festival
June 18 - July 26

World’s Largest Chamber Music Party Expands with Performances All Across the Greater Seattle Region

Marking America250, Every Concert Features a Work Connected to America—by an American Composer or One That Helped Shape Our Nation’s Classical Voice,

including music by Amy Beach, Aaron Copland, Samuel Barber, and George Walker and SCMS Commissions from Juhi Bansal and Kian Ravaei

Renowned performers include violinists James Ehnes, Erin Keefe, Alexander Kerr, and Tessa Lark; pianists Inon Barnatan, Alessio Bax, and Orion Weiss; cellists Ani Aznavoorian, Efe Baltacıgil, and Mark Kosower; and violists Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt and Jonathan Vinocour

To download images, click HERE

Seattle, March 9, 2026 — Seattle Chamber Music Society (SCMS), a cornerstone of the classical music scene since 1982, announced today the programming for its 2026 Summer Festival. From June 18 through July 26, classical music luminaries will come together for outstanding chamber music collaborations, guided by the vision of violinist James Ehnes, SCMS’s Gilbert Omenn and Martha Darling Artistic Director. This year, SCMS is broadening its geographical reach by presenting concerts in performance halls around the region and sharing chamber music in even more nontraditional spaces.“This summer, we embark on a festival-wide celebration of American music, inspired by the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Every program includes a work either written in America, or by an American, or both” says Ehnes. “We’re especially looking forward to playing this summer in many different communities; our goal is to share this incredible music with as many people as possible! Every concert brings together remarkable and dynamic combinations of the world’s most compelling musicians, and often these extraordinary ensembles exist for a single evening only,” he adds. Among the renowned artists performing this year are violinists JamesEhnes, Erin Keefe, Alexander Kerr, and Tessa Lark; pianists Inon Barnatan, Alessio Bax, and Orion Weiss; cellists Ani Aznavoorian, Efe Baltacıgil, and Mark Kosower; and violists Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt and Jonathan Vinocour. For this summer’s festival, the SCMS Commissioning Club has commissioned a work from Juhi Bansal, and – with Mimir Chamber Music Festival – SCMS has co-commissioned a piece for narrator and string quartet by Kian Ravaei, in which the narrator recites the opening and closing of the Declaration of Independence. 

The Summer Festival celebrates the depth, beauty, and vitality of the chamber music tradition. Highlights include John Adams’s Shaker Loops for string septet; Amy Beach’s Piano Trio; Samuel Barber’s String Quartet; Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring (“Ballet for Martha”) in its original version for 13-instrument chamber ensemble; Antonín Dvořák’s String Quartet No. 12, “American”; Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances Op. 45 (Two Pianos); and George Walker’s String Quartet No. 1. Complementing these works are beloved masterpieces, including Brahms’s Piano Quartet No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 60; Haydn’s Piano Trio in A-flat Major, Hob. XV:14; Mendelssohn’s Piano Trio in D Minor, Op. 49; and Mendelssohn’s Octet in E-flat Major, Op. 20. (Full program details are below.)

Nordstrom Recital Hall, Meydenbauer Center, and Town Hall concerts will be livestreamed and available on demand worldwide through SCMS’s Virtual Concert Hall. The digital concert experience features six camera angles plus live intermission interviews and commentary with SCMS musicians and hosts from Classical KING, Seattle’s classical music radio station. This season’s Virtual Concert Hall includes all nine performances from the 2026 Summer Festival, along with three special “greatest hits” concerts drawn from standout performances of past seasons, creating a 12-concert online festival that pairs this summer’s programming with some of the most beloved moments from recent years.

SCMS joyfully refers to its Summer Festival as “the world’s largest chamber music party,” and, this summer, is bringing it to new corners of the Seattle region. During the five week period, SCMS presents 11 ticketed mainstage concerts and 11 completely free and open-to-the-public pre-concert recitals at leading performing arts spaces throughout the Sound, including Benaroya Hall’s Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall, Meydenbauer Center, Town Hall Seattle, Bainbridge Performing Arts, and Vashon Center for the Arts. In addition, on Saturday, July 18, audiences can enjoy the free Chamber Music in the Park outdoor concert and community play-along at Seattle's Volunteer Park.SCMS Summer Festival also transports the joy of live music all across the greater Seattle region with a series of 20+ concerts running June 18 to July 6 from the stage of The Concert Truck, fueled by SCMS. Redefining how people experience live music, The Concert Truck is a box truck transformed into a fully equipped mobile concert hall, allowing world-class chamber music to be performed in everyday spaces—city streets, parks, schools, and neighborhoods. SCMS Summer Festival stops include Alki Beach, Bellevue Downtown Park, Gas Works Park, Seattle Center, Seward Park, and Washington Arboretum Park. (All locations and dates will be announced soon.) 

A highlight of the Festival, Tasting Notes returns July 6 with an exciting new lineup of celebrated Seattle chefs and a delicious new twist. Hosted by James Ehnes and celebrity chef and New York Times best-selling author J. Kenji López-Alt, this one-of-a-kind evening brings SCMS musicians together with acclaimed chefs Taichi Kitamura (Sushi Kappo Tamura), Mutsuko Soma (Kamonegi and Hannyatou), and Christina Woods (Temple Pastries). Guests will experience live chamber music, lively cooking demonstrations, and—new this year—a full dinner service featuring each chef’s creations, all unfolding on stage at the Triple Door (216 Union St, Seattle).

“Seattle Chamber Music Society’s Summer Festival shows the world how chamber music is a centering force,” added Ehnes. “Throughout the summer, we gather thousands of people to hear extraordinary works performed at the highest level, and we further establish Seattle as a cultural destination for exceptional artists and classical music audiences. Each concert reflects the very best of SCMS and our art form, and is designed to leave listeners uplifted, fulfilled, and more deeply connected to Chamber Music.” 

Seattle Chamber Music Society: 2026 Summer Festival

The World’s Largest Chamber Music Party: June 18 through July 26

—June 18–July 6—

The Concert Truck, fueled by SCMS, presents 18 performances in Alki Beach, Gas Works Park, Seattle Center, and other stops around Seattle. The full list of locations and dates will be announced soon.

—July 6—

Tasting Notes

The Triple Door 

216 Union St, Seattle, 98101

—July 7— Rachmaninoff: Symphonic Dances for Two Pianos, Op. 45

Alessio Bax, Orion Weiss (piano) 

Mendelssohn: Octet in E-flat Major, Op. 20 

James Ehnes, Amy Schwartz Moretti, Andrew Wan, and Chad Hoopes (violin), Che-Yen Chen and Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt (viola), Edward Arron and Efe Baltacıgil (cello)

Benaroya Hall’s Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall 

200 University St, Seattle, 98101

—July 9—

Kian Ravaei: A Free People (SCMS co-commission) 

Amy Schwartz Moretti and Andrew Wan (violin), Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt (viola), Efe Baltacigil (cello)

Mendelssohn: Piano Trio No. 1 in D Minor, Op. 49 

Alessio Bax (piano), Chad Hoopes (violin), Mark Kosower (cello) 

Brahms: Piano Quartet No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 60 

James Ehnes (violin), Che-Yen Chen (viola), Edward Arron (cello), Orion Weiss (piano) 

Benaroya Hall’s Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall 

200 University St, Seattle, 98101

—July 12—

Haydn: Piano Trio in A-flat Major, Hob. XV:14 

Orion Weiss (piano), Tessa Lark (violin), Mark Kosower (cello) 

Respighi: Piano Quintet in F Minor

Alessio Bax (piano), Andrew Wan and Chad Hoopes (violin), Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt (viola), Efe Baltacıgil (cello)

Dvořák: String Quartet No. 12, “American” 

James Ehnes and Amy Schwartz Moretti (violin), Che-Yen Chen (viola), Edward Arron (cello)

Benaroya Hall’s Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall 

200 University St, Seattle, 98101

—July 13 & July 14—

Beethoven: String Quartet, Op. 18 No. 1 

James Ehnes, Amy Schwartz Moretti (violin), Che-Yen Chen (viola), Edward Arron (cello)

Dohnányi: Serenade for String Trio 

Tessa Lark (violin), Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt (viola), Ani Aznavoorian (cello)

Dvořák: String Quartet No. 12, “American” 

James Ehnes and Amy Schwartz Moretti (violin), Che-Yen Chen (viola), Edward Arron (cello)

July 13 - Vashon Island Center for the Arts 

19600 Vashon Hwy SW, Vashon, 98070

July 14 - Bainbridge Island Performing Arts 

200 Madison Ave N., Bainbridge Island, 98110

—July 15—Beethoven: String Trio, Op. 9 No. 1 

Alexander Kerr (violin), Meredith Kufchak (viola), Ani Aznavoorian (cello)

Barber: String Quartet 

James Ehnes and Amy Schwartz Moretti (violin), Che-Yen Chen (viola), Edward Arron (cello)

Suk: Piano Quartet, Op. 1 

Inon Barnatan (piano), Tessa Lark (violin), Matthew Lipman (viola), Jonathan Swensen (cello) 

Meydenbauer Center 

11100 NE 6th St, Bellevue, 98004

—July 17—

Amy Beach: Piano Trio 

Paige Roberts Molloy (piano), Tessa Lark (violin), Ani Aznavoorian (cello)

Brahms: Violin Sonata No. 1 in G major, Op. 78

James Ehnes (violin), Inon Barnatan (piano)

Mendelssohn: String Quintet No. 1 in A Major 

Alexander Kerr and Noah Geller (violin), Meredith Kufchak and Matthew Lipman (viola), Jonathan Swensen (cello) 

Meydenbauer Center 

11100 NE 6th St, Bellevue, 98004

—July 18—

Chamber Music in the Park, and community play-along 

Dvořák: Terzetto in C Major, Op. 74

James Ehnes and Alexander Kerr (violin), Meredith Kufchak (viola)

Suk: Piano Quartet in A minor, Op. 1

Inon Barnatan (piano), Tessa Lark (violin), Matthew Lipman (viola), Jonathan Swensen (cello)

Volunteer Park

1247 15th Ave E, Seattle, 98112

—July 19—

Juhi Bansal: New Work (SCMS commission) 

Noah Geller and Alexander Kerr (violin), Meredith Kufchak (viola), Jonathan Swensen (cello) 

Fauré: Violin Sonata No. 1 in A Major, Op. 13 

Tessa Lark (violin), Inon Barnatan (piano)

Dvořák: Piano Quartet No. 2 in E-flat Major, Op. 87 

Jon Kimura Parker (piano), James Ehnes (violin), Matthew Lipman (viola), Ani Aznavoorian (cello)

Town Hall Seattle 

1119 8th Ave, Seattle, 98101

—July 21—

Shostakovich: Piano Trio No. 1, Op. 8 

Jon Kimura Parker (piano), Jun Iwasaki (violin), Brant Taylor (cello)

Walker: String Quartet No. 1

Stephen Rose and Erin Keefe (violin), Noah Geller (viola), Bion Tsang (cello)

Brahms: Piano Quartet No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 25 

Inon Barnatan (piano), Karen Gomyo (violin), Jonathan Vinocour (viola), Kenneth Olsen (cello)

Town Hall Seattle 

1119 8th Ave, Seattle, 98101

—July 24—Piazzolla: Histoire du Tango

Karen Gomyo (violin), Paige Roberts Molloy (piano)

Adams: Shaker Loops for String Septet 

James Ehnes and Stephen Rose (violin), Jun Iwasaki and Jonathan Vinocour (viola), Brant Taylor and Kenneth Olsen (cello), Joseph Kaufman (double bass)

Schubert: Piano Trio No. 1 in B-flat Major, D. 898 

George Li (piano), Erin Keefe (violin), Bion Tsang (cello)

Town Hall Seattle 

1119 8th Ave, Seattle, 98101

—July 26—

Shostakovich: Two Pieces for String Octet 

Karen Gomyo, Jun Iwasaki, Stephen Rose, and Erin Keefe (violin), Jonathan Vinocour and James Ehnes (viola), Bion Tsang and Brant Taylor (cello)

Grieg: Sonata for Cello and Piano, Op. 36 

Kenneth Olsen (cello), George Li (piano) 

Copland: Appalachian Spring (“Ballet for Martha”) - Original complete ballet for 13 instruments 

James Ehnes, Karen Gomyo, Erin Keefe, and Stephen Rose (violin), Jonathan Vinocour and Jun Iwasaki (viola), Brant Taylor and Bion Tsang (cello), Joseph Kaufman (double bass), Demarre McGill (flute), Benjamin Lulich (clarinet), Seth Krimsky (bassoon), and Paige Roberts Molloy (piano)

Town Hall Seattle 

1119 8th Ave, Seattle, 98101

Early bird subscriptions available now, click HERE. Single tickets go on sale April 27.

The 2026 Summer Festival is generously sponsored by Lyn and Jerry Grinstein.

The Virtual Concert Hall is generously sponsored by Diana K. Carey.

The 2025-2026 season is generously sponsored by Dave and Amy Fulton.

Community and Education programs take place throughout the festival and are free with registration. A full list of community and education programs, including free pre-concerts, will be available at seattlechambermusic.org. Offerings will include four in-depth lectures—also streamed via Zoom—an interactive sight-reading party, the popular Azure Family Concert, open rehearsals, and a Community Play-Along, bringing Chamber Music in the Park for musicians and listeners alike. Dates and details will be announced soon.

About Seattle Chamber Music Society

The mission of the Seattle Chamber Music Society is to cultivate a deep appreciation for chamber music by presenting exceptional performances in welcoming and accessible formats. Through education, community engagement, and a commitment to excellence, SCMS seeks to position chamber music as a central cultural force, both locally and globally, while ensuring its enduring relevance and sustainability. 

Each year, SCMS presents a Winter Festival in January and a Summer Festival in July at the Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall at Benaroya Hall, bringing the world’s finest classical musicians to the stage. These intimate chamber music performances captivate both seasoned enthusiasts and newcomers alike. In addition to its renowned festivals, SCMS offers an expanded year-round lineup, including the new Signature Series, Crescendo Concerts in Seattle’s most stunning homes, and Concerts at the Center for Chamber Music, providing unparalleled access to extraordinary musical experiences. 

SCMS also enriches the community through dynamic engagement programs designed for audiences of all ages. From inspiring young learners in elementary schools to enriching lives in retirement communities, and from performances in hospitals and parks to concerts on wheels, SCMS remains steadfast in its mission to bring extraordinary chamber music to every corner of our community.

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Media contact:

Matt Herman, Managing Director

8VA Music Consultancy

matt@8vamusicconsultancy.com

Marin Alsop on The Kelly Clarkson Show

In celebration of Women's History Month, pop star P!nk, filling in for Kelly Clarkson on her talk show, meets Marin Alsop, the most famous woman conductor in the world and one of the most acclaimed conductors of our time. Marin dials in from Vienna to share how she's breaking yet another glass ceiling on International Women's Day.

“On International Women's Day I will become the first woman in the 200-year history to lead the Webern Symphony Orchestra at the Musikverein. It's shocking to me that we can be in the year 2026, and there can still be firsts for women.”

Congratulations, Marin!

Watch the full segment on YouTube.

Parlando confronts darkness and history in Haas’s unsettling ‘in vain’

Ben Gambuzza reviews Parlando’s stirring performance of in vain, by Georg Friedrich Haas, composed in 2000 as a response to the rise of the far right in Austria. It is scored for 24 instruments and explores microtonality and the acoustic properties of sound, creating strikingly novel tonalities and textures. It is performed in different levels of low lighting, even in darkness, blending with the music over 70 minutes. Simon Rattle declared in vain “one of the first masterpieces of the 21st century.”

“in vain is tragic,” writes Gambuzza about Parlando’s Feb. 22 performance at Kaufman Music Center, conducted by Ian Niederhoffer, who founded the New York-based chamber ensemble. “Haas himself has acknowledged that the ending, which takes us back to the beginning, is anything but optimistic: ‘I still cannot imagine that anybody can perceive the moment when the music from the beginning returns at the end as anything but oppressive.’”

Parlando leaned into these final moments with strung-out and exhausted descending scales. They get slower and slower, minute by minute. As the red light seeped into the blue, I had to tell my brain not to render the glockenspiel’s descending sequence as a grotesque “Three Blind Mice.” But it wouldn’t listen.

…

Like all concert music, in vain is capable of prompting a revolution in the mind rather than in the street. And like a Bach Passion, it’s music for reflection, not for celebration. It conceptualizes a fallen utopian idea. It’s an obituary in music. There was something healthily naive about Parlando’s interpretation, but for such a young ensemble, their sound was mature.

Read the full piece here.

Parlando, with conductor and founder Ian Niederhoffer.

Sandbox Percussion: "Canto Ostinato" Casts a Musical Spell at Cal Performances

Sandbox Percussion and AMOC* and perform Canto Ostinato at Lincoln Center, June 25, 2025. Credit: Lawrence Sumulong

Sandbox Percussion and American Modern Opera Company (AMOC), gave a spectacular performance of Simeon ten Holt’s Canto Ostinato on Sunday, Feb. 22, under the auspices of Cal Performances at Zellerbach Playhouse in Berkeley.

Canto Ostinato is a layered, shimmering minimalist work from the 1970s that has earned a dedicated following in ten Holt’s native Netherlands, and is realized here by the four mallet percussionists of Sandbox, joined by AMOC members Conor Hanick and Matthew Aucoin on piano. As envisioned by these sterling interpreters, ten Holt’s hypnotic instrumental score unfurls in an emotional dramatic arc during an afternoon-length sonic journey.

“It was a sonically magical combination,” reports Lisa Hirsch for the San Francisco Chronicle. “Percussion instruments they may be, but together they created a wash of sound that was, paradoxically, both exciting and soothing. The music demanded attention, even as it verged on the hypnotic.”

The musical texture shifted from time to time, with instruments dropping out and coming back in. When all of the instruments played, the sound could pierce you, obliterating thought and leaving only sensation. Sometimes it felt like a great epic was being recited in the distance, the words incomprehensible.

Read the full piece here.

A Love Letter to Chamber Music: The Isidore String Quartet on the Cover of "Strings" magazine

“Part of the Juilliard Quartet’s influence on our mission is their motto of treating the old like it’s new and the new like it’s old,” violinist Adrian Steele, from the Isidore String Quartet, tells Greg Cahill from Strings magazine for the cover story of the March/April 2026 issue. “That ability to contextualize the repertoire and maintain its freshness is core to our mission as a group. One way to accomplish that is by treating the music as a playground — by shedding preconceptions or rigidity in interpretation.”

The group — Phoenix Avalon and Adrian Steele, violins; Devin Moore, viola; and Joshua McClendon, cello — has been on a steady rise since winning the first prize and the Haydn prize at the 2022 Banff International String Quartet Competition, and a 2023 Avery Fisher Career Grant.

The quartet's debut album, Adorations, is a love letter to chamber music — “a celebration of chamber music at its essence, a tapestry of joy, human connection, and the enduring resonance of lives intertwined,” Moore says. “We felt immense joy putting this album together and can’t wait for listeners to experience that same joy.”

Joy is indeed central to the Isidore's mission, Steele says. “In such an innately intimate setting, the community we build through our music should reflect the relationships we build within the quartet. The spark of live music comes from the looks and gestures we share during a performance, and that energy translates to our communication with the audience as a sort of ‘fifth member’ of the quartet.”

Ultimately, this fabulous young string quartet is just “four friends who love sharing music and connecting with each other and our communities, adds Avalon. “We aim to inspire joy and curiosity through our music and to reach as many people as possible. We want our performances to reflect the world we live in — with its struggles and challenges — while also offering a space for pause, honesty, and genuine connection.”

Read the full feature here.

Listen to Adorations on your favorite music streaming platform: oh.lnk.to/Adorations

Violinist.com: Interview with Esther Yoo

Esther Yoo, one of the world’s leading violinists, recently released Love Symposium on Deutsche Grammophon. It is her most personal album yet. The centerpiece of the album, which features London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra led by the preeminent conductor Long Yu, is the Serenade after Plato’s Symposium, one of Bernstein’s most lyrical and enduring orchestral works.

Love Symposium is "an exploration of the many different aspects and forms of love," Yoo, the RPO’s first artist-in-residence, told Violinist.com. "It's an invitation for listeners to experience a philosophical and an emotional discovery of love - through music."

From the beginning, music has provided an important source of connection for Yoo. As a painfully shy child, "music was my most comfortable means of communication," she said. "Somehow I wasn't shy about being on stage, playing the violin or the piano for someone." For her, the violin best conveyed the range emotions that she wished to express.

Each of Yoo’s selections for Love Symposium is a portrait of a different kind of love — a reflection of love in all its guises, from the philosophical ideas found in the Symposium to the love of nature, family, friends, significant others, and, most importantly, “the ever-evolving love we learn to give ourselves,” according to Yoo's program note. “We often think of love in music as something purely romantic and idealized, but I wanted to create a sound world where we experience real love—the blissfully transcendent, the powerfully intoxicating, the gut-wrenchingly painful, and everything in between.”

Read the Violinist.com feature here.

Marin Alsop Launches Second Global Social Media Campaign “#PurpleBaton”

The world-renowned conductor Marin Alsop, in partnership with the Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship, will lead #PurpleBaton, a global social media movement advancing the careers of women conductors in classical music.

The campaign takes place during March, National Women’s History Month. Alsop, the first woman to be named music director of a major U.S. orchestra and a defining conductor of our time, will be joined by hundreds of leading classical organizations and artists sharing videos and images with a purple baton. The campaign, gathered under the hashtag #PurpleBaton, advocates for greater representation of women music directors and conductors.

“The #PurpleBaton movement signals to the world support of women conductors on the podium, and women in leadership roles across all disciplines, explains Alsop. “Those who take part promise to be active allies in shaping a future rich with possibility. They’ll show up for exceptional women in leadership across classical music, affirming that there is a vital and engaged global audience for communities, organizations, and presenters committed to building a more equitable field.”

Anyone interested in supporting the campaign may order their own purple baton for $15 on batonz.com/purplebaton, and is encouraged to use the hashtag #PurpleBaton on social media.

Read the full OperaWire feature here.

Learn more about #PurpleBaton at marinalsop.com/projects/purplebaton/ and takialsop.org.

Beijing Music Festival: Opera for All

The Beijing Music Festival, an annual music festival held in Beijing, “continues to solidify its position as an international hub for classical music,” reports Lauren Mcquistin for Opera Now. Creating a culture where classical music is for everyone is very much at the forefront of the illustrious festival’s goal.

The latest edition of the Beijing Music Festival, founded in 1998 by conductor Long Yu and today one of the world’s most important cultural events, welcomed the Chinese premieres of Handel’s Rinaldo in a concert performance by the London-based baroque orchestra The English Concert, and of Berg’s Wozzeck, in a fully staged production. The latter was “bold in its nuanced exploration of the universal human feelings of alienation, despair and struggle,” according to Mcquistin.

An important component of the Beijing Music Festival is to nurture future talent. Shuang Zou, the current artistic director, who is helping create a new wave of opera in China, says that she aims to “fit in as many young musicians to appear in our festival as possible,” including bringing Chinese composers from overseas to China to “share their vision, how they see themselves as Chinese composers in the world map.”

Read the full feature here.

Wozzeck at Beijing Music Festival, 2025

“Pancho Rabbit and the Coyote,” by Anthony Davis, Lands

The New York Times reports on the new children’s opera Pancho Rabbit and the Coyote, by Anthony Davis, the composer of X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X. The new stage work chronicles a journey through deserts, a river, an underground tunnel and a border wall, told with singers dressed up as hopping bunnies, coyotes, snakes, and butterflies.

While Pancho Rabbit might present itself as a children’s opera, it tackles some of the most polarizing events gripping the nation today. It is based on a children’s picture book and written in Spanish and English, recounting the story of a Mexican farmer (Papa Rabbit), who crosses the border into the United States to work on carrot and lettuce fields. His young son, Pancho Rabbit, embarks on a perilous journey to find his father, escorted by a coyote that later tries to eat him.

“I wanted to find a way to capture the imagination of children at the same time having the subtext of what we are dealing with now,” Davis told the Times.

Read the full feature here.

"Promise and possibility:" the Isidore String Quartet

The New York City-based Isidore String Quartet, formed at the Juilliard School in 2019 and coached by the Juilliard String Quartet, is featured in the February 2026 issue of The Strad.

The members—violinists Adrian Steele and Phoenix Avalon, violist Devin Moore, and cellist Joshua McClendon—follow the Juilliards’ lineage by “approaching the established as if it were brand new, and the new as if it were firmly established.” They tell writer Pauline Harding about their sudden rise into the world of professional string quartet playing after winning the 14th Banff International String Quartet Competition in 2022, a beloved mentor whose loss has inspired their debut album, and their collaboration with the composer Billy Childs.

“I learned more in the first four months of us being a professional quartet than I did in school, about what I wanted to do with my life,” said Moore.

Distinguished by a refined and balanced ensemble sound, anchored by supreme technical proficiency, the quartet is set to release its debut recording, Adorations, in March, featuring music by Haydn, Barber, Mendelssohn, and Florence Price. It is a love letter to chamber music, to the solace it offers, the wonder it awakens, and the countless ways it has shaped, sustained, and inspired the Isidores.

Adorations is dedicated to the life and legacy of Joel Krosnick (1941–2025), the cellist of the Juilliard String Quartet from 1974 to 2016, who was their coach and mentor. He was an “overwhelming grandfather figure,” said McClendon. “Being in the room with him felt like a warm embrace.”

Read the full feature here.