Pacifica Quartet

Based in Bloomington, Indiana, the Pacifica Quartet is a leading American chamber ensemble. The quartet has emphasized the performance of complete cycles of chamber music by various composers.

The Pacifica Quartet was formed in southern California in 1994. Its original members were violinists Simin Ganatra and Sibbi Bernhardsson, violist Kathryn Lockwood, and cellist Brandon Vamos; as of the mid-2020s, the group included Ganatra, Vamos, violinist Austin Harman, and violist Mark Holloway. The Pacifica Quartet won a Naumburg Chamber Music Award in 1998 and several other awards that propelled the players to a prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2006. The group made its recording debut in 2000 on the <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Cedille%22">Cedille</a> label with the album String Quartets by Easley Blackwood. The Pacifica Quartet was featured on the cover of Gramophone magazine that year as one of five new string quartets worthy of attention, and in 2009, the quartet was named ensemble of the year by Musical America.

The Pacifica Quartet has specialized in quartet cycles by Beethoven, <a href="spotify:artist:6s1pCNXcbdtQJlsnM1hRIA">Shostakovich</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:6MF58APd3YV72Ln2eVg710">Mendelssohn</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:7IqwNdpG9USkkEH36pkKEB">Elliott Carter</a>, often performing them over just a few days in impressive feats of endurance and concentration. These concerts have taken place in major venues worldwide; the <a href="spotify:artist:7IqwNdpG9USkkEH36pkKEB">Carter</a> set was performed over three nights at Suntory Hall in Tokyo. The group has appeared on chamber music series across North America, often championing contemporary music. They have premiered quartets by Keeril Makan and <a href="spotify:artist:6XywJ4a9JsY1EgGY6huQJ5">Shulamit Ran</a>. The Pacifica Quartet was on the faculty of the University of Illinois from 2003 to 2012 and now teaches at the University of Indiana as well as heading the Center for Advanced Quartet Studies at the Aspen Music Festival and School.

The quartet has made more than 15 recordings, mostly for the <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Naxos%22">Naxos</a> and <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Cedille%22">Cedille</a> labels. A highlight of the 2010s was a sequence of four albums entitled The Soviet Experience, featuring quartets by <a href="spotify:artist:6s1pCNXcbdtQJlsnM1hRIA">Dmitri Shostakovich</a> and his contemporaries. For <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Hyperion%22">Hyperion</a>, in 2015, the group made an acclaimed recording of <a href="spotify:artist:4xEN7P6qTshUAylmnZhaFB">Leo Ornstein</a>'s rare and difficult piano quintet with pianist <a href="spotify:artist:0pm0LWiklLtNXUP2GVwdqY">Marc-André Hamelin</a>. The Pacifica Quartet was heard in 2019 with guitarist <a href="spotify:artist:3TXeUeBzDNk93uvzr0byAu">Sharon Isbin</a> on the album Souvenirs of Spain & Italy on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Cedille%22">Cedille</a>. The quartet released the album Contemporary Voices in 2020, returning in 2022 with American Stories. That album featured clarinetist <a href="spotify:artist:6ZwxEjOFZffVcpA0suKpQD">Anthony McGill</a> and earned a Grammy Award nomination for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance. ~ James Manheim, Rovi