Parker Quartet

Established in Boston in 2002, the Parker Quartet takes its name from the Omni Parker House hotel in that city. Violinists Daniel Chong and Ken Hamao, violist Jessica Bodner, and cellist Kee-Hyun Kim all completed studies at the New England Conservatory of Music and the Juilliard School; the ensemble further profited from enrollment in the New England Conservatory’s Professional String Quartet Training Program between 2006 and 2008. Additional guidance came from the original Cleveland Quartet members, violist Kim Kashkashian, pianist and composer György Kurtág, and violinist Rainer Schmidt.

Competition successes—the Concert Artists Guild Competition victory, the Grand Prix and Mozart Prize at France’s Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition, and Chamber Music America’s Cleveland Quartet Award—advanced the quartet’s trajectory. Its first recording, devoted to Bartók’s String Quartets Nos. 2 and 5, appeared on the Zig Zag Territoires label in 2007.

From its earliest years the group has united authoritative command of standard repertory with contemporary works. An initial residency at Brooklyn’s Barbes Bar and Performance Space supported joint appearances with folk, jazz, and world-music performers. Later posts included Minnesota Public Radio—the broadcaster’s first such appointment—the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the University of Minnesota, the University of St. Thomas, and, beginning in the mid-2010s and extending into the 2020s, Harvard University. Appearances have occurred in leading halls at home and abroad, among them London’s Wigmore Hall. Frequent partners encompass violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, pianists Vijay Iyer and Shai Wosner, and musicians from the Silk Road Ensemble.

The ensemble recorded Ligeti’s String Quartets Nos. 1 and 2 for Naxos in 2009 and has issued further albums on Innova and Nimbus Alliance; on ECM New Series the quartet, joined by Kashkashian, released a 2021 disc containing Dvořák’s String Quintet, Op. 97, together with works by Kurtág. A disciplined sonic profile has carried the group to major international stages and prompted an array of partnerships with both established and new-music artists, while an enduring educational mission has been realized through multiple residencies, most notably the extended artists-in-residence role at Harvard University.