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 Cedille 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, Shostakovich, Mendelssohn, and Elliott Carter, 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 Carter 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 Shulamit Ran. 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 Naxos and Cedille labels. A highlight of the 2010s was a sequence of four albums entitled The Soviet Experience, featuring quartets by Dmitri Shostakovich and his contemporaries. For Hyperion, in 2015, the group made an acclaimed recording of Leo Ornstein's rare and difficult piano quintet with pianist Marc-André Hamelin. The Pacifica Quartet was heard in 2019 with guitarist Sharon Isbin on the album Souvenirs of Spain & Italy on Cedille. The quartet released the album Contemporary Voices in 2020, returning in 2022 with American Stories. That album featured clarinetist Anthony McGill and earned a Grammy Award nomination for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance.
© James Manheim /TiVo
Discography
18 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller
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The Soviet Experience: The Complete String Quartets by Dmitri Shostakovich
Chamber Music - Released by Cedille on 1 Sep 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Quatuor à cordes (Intégrale) (Felix Mendelssohn)
Classical - Released by Cedille Records on 1 Jan 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart & Brahms Clarinet Quintets
Anthony McGill, Pacifica Quartet
Chamber Music - Released by Cedille on 6 May 2014
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Brahms: Piano Quintet, Op. 34 - R. Schumann: String Quartet, Op. 41 No. 1
Pacifica Quartet, Menahem Pressler
Chamber Music - Released by Cedille on 10 Mar 2017
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
American Stories
Anthony McGill, Pacifica Quartet
Chamber Music - Released by Cedille on 11 Nov 2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Souvenirs of Spain & Italy
Emilio Pujol, Sharon Isbin, Pacifica Quartet, Unknown Artist
Chamber Music - Released by Cedille on 23 Aug 2019
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Declarations - Music Between the Wars (Leos Janacek - Ruth Crawford Seeger - Paul Hindemith)
Classical - Released by Cedille Records on 26 Sep 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Leo Ornstein: Piano Quintet & String Quartet No. 2
Marc-André Hamelin, Pacifica Quartet
Classical - Released by Hyperion on 28 Aug 2015
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
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The Soviet Experience, Vol. 4: String Quartets of Dmitri Shostakovich and His Contemporaries (Pacifica Quartet)
Chamber Music - Released by Cedille on 19 Nov 2013
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Quatuors pour cordes n° 1 & 5
Chamber Music - Released by Naxos on 1 Jan 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Soviet Experience (Volume 3) : Chostakovitch & Weinberg : Quatuors à cordes
Quartets - Released by Cedille on 5 Mar 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Soviet Experience (Volume 1)
Chamber Music - Released by Cedille on 6 Sep 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Soviet Experience (Volume II) (Dimitri Chostakovitch - Serge Prokofiev)
Classical - Released by Cedille Records on 27 Feb 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Quatuors à cordes (Easley Blackwood)
Classical - Released by Cedille Records on 15 Mar 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Leo Ornstein: Piano Quintet & String Quartet No. 2
Marc-André Hamelin, Pacifica Quartet
Classical - Released by Hyperion on 28 Aug 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
American Voices
Pacifica Quartet, Uniting Voices, Josephine Lee
Chamber Music - To be released on 10 May 2024 by Cedille Records
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo