Season begins with January concerts in Bronxville and Briarcliff Manor
The Cassatt Stringt Quartet, photo by Dario Acosta
This season, the Cassatt String Quartet celebrates 40 years of performing world class chamber music together. Founded in 1985, the ensemble has championed living composers and those whose music is not often heard. They are have commissioned, performed, and recorded dozens of new works, while also delivering critically acclaimed performances of core repertoire.
The season kicks off with a pair of concerts in New York: in Bronxville on January 24, and in Briarcliff Manor on January 29. January 24 (Bronxville, NY): Concert at Reformed Church of BronxvilleJanuary 29 (Briarcliff Manor, NY): Concert at Artis Briarcliff
In spring 2025 the Cassatts perform in New York, Ohio, and Connecticut. Pianist Emely Phelps will join them for select dates. In July, they sail off to the Seal Bay Festival of American Chamber Music in Maine where they’ve been an ensemble in residence since 1994. This season also sees important commissions, including a piano quintet by Victoria Bond and a new string quartet by Joan Tower, to be premiered at Maverick Concerts in September 2025.
A forthcoming album of works by Daniel S. Godfrey will be the latest addition to the Cassatt String Quartet’s extensive discography, which features over forty recordings, three of which were named “10 Best Classical Recordings” in The New Yorker.
CSQ violinist Muneko Otani says “When I joined the quartet in 1987, I could not have imagined that I’d still be making music with such wonderful colleagues in 2025. It’s a joy to see the expanding list of works we’ve commissioned and albums we’ve recorded. I’m excited for the upcoming tour in Ohio and premiering works by our longtime collaborators and friends Joan Tower and Victoria Bond this year.”
The season kicks off with a pair of concerts in New York: in Bronxville on January 24, and in Briarcliff Manor on January 29. The quartet will perform Dorothy Rudd Moore’s Modes, Mozart’s String Quartet No. 17 “The Hunt” and Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 14 on both programs. Moore was a co-founder of the Society of Black Composers. Her music “is at once richly structured, quirky, and whimsical, at once emphasizing form and line as well as lightness and, at times, humor” (Gina Genova, Director of American Composers Alliance).
In February, pianist Emely Phelps joins the quartet in Ohio on February 12 at Ohio University in Athens and February 14 at Oberlin College, where CSQ cellist Gwen Krosnick is Visiting Professor of Cello this semester. The programs feature Brahms’ Piano Quintet in F minor as well works by Moore and Mozart.
