The featured chamber group for the third concert of the Blue Hill Concert Association 2023 season is the Pacifica Quartet, “recognized for its virtuosity, exuberant performance style, and often daring repertory choices.” The quartet — Simin Ganatra, violin, Austin Hartman, violin, Mark Holloway, viola, and Brandon Vamos, cello, formerly served as quartet-in-residence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and are now quartet-in-residence and full-time faculty members at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music. The quartet has performed the complete quartet cycles of Elliot Carter, Felix Mendelssohn, Ludwig von Beethoven, and Dmitri Shostakovich. The Pacifica Quartet has produced an extensive library of recordings and won a 2021 Grammy for their album “Contemporary Voices,” featuring the music of Shulamit Ran, Jennifer Higdon, and Ellen Taaffe Zwilich.
Below you may sample the music of the Pacifica Quartet, including a movement from Béla Bartók’s String Quartet No. 4, and an excerpt from Jennifer Higdon’s Voices. You may hear the quartet in person on February 26 at 3:00 pm at the Blue Hill Congregational Church!