Chiara String Quartet

Performing entirely from memory sets the Chiara String Quartet apart in its approach to the standard literature. Established in 2000, the group secured multiple grants before assuming the role of Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln in 2005. It next held the Blodgett Artists-in-Residence position at Harvard University between 2008 and 2014, followed by a residency at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art during the 2015-2016 season. The founding members comprise violinists Rebecca Fischer and Hyeyung Julie Yoon, violist Jonah Sirota, and cellist Gregory Beaver.

Beyond dispensing with printed parts—an approach documented on the albums Brahms by Heart and Bartók by Heart—the quartet has presented its programs in unconventional spaces, including bars and nightclubs, guided by the motto “Chamber music in any chamber.” Its members have instructed at the Juilliard School of Music, the Greenwood Music Camp, and the Chamber Music Institute of the University of Nebraska. The ensemble has issued recordings on its own New Voice Singles imprint as well as on New Amsterdam and Azica Records; the release of Jefferson Friedman’s String Quartet No. 3 earned a Grammy Award nomination.

At the conclusion of the 2017-2018 season the four musicians elected to disband, freeing each to pursue wider performing and teaching opportunities. During the spring of 2018, on the final tour, the Chiara String Quartet joined pianist Paul Barnes to give the world premiere of a new piano quintet composed by Philip Glass.