Jessica Tong, violin / Aaron Requiro, violin / Laura Seay, viola / An-Lin Bardin, cello

Hailed by The New York Times as “stunning” and “musicians worth keeping an eye on,” the Vinca Quartet is a charismatic young string quartet committed to forging bonds between audiences and performers by sharing their own passion for chamber music through the highest caliber performances. First Prize winners of the International Chamber Music Ensemble and laureates of the Premio Paolo Borciani International Quartet Competition, Plowman, Fischoff, and Chesapeake International Chamber Music Competitions, the Quartet has been regularly featured on public radio in the US as well as on German National Radio. They have performed internationally for four years in major concert halls including Carnegie Hall, Vilar Hall in Colorado, Sprague Memorial Hall at Yale University, Aspen’s Harris Hall, Weikersheim Castle in Germany and les Invalides in Paris, France. The Quartet has appeared at the International Musician’s Seminar at Prussia Cove in Cornwall, England, the Juilliard Quartet Seminar, the Carnegie Hall Professional Workshops, Soundfest Chamber Music Festival, Deer Valley Music Festival, and Jeunesses Musicales Deutschland. Most recently, they were selected by ProQuartet to become the 2010 Quartet-in-Residence for the International Odyssée Program- an, an honor that will enable them to spend a month performing, attending master classes and researching musical education systems across France.
 
The Vinca Quartet received the honor of being appointed the first resident quartet to study and collaborate with the Tákacs Quartet at the University of Colorado. Other collaborators and teachers have include the Artemis, Colorado, Emerson, Muir and Tokyo Quartets. They are currently under the mentorship of Pamela Frank, and will begin their tenure as Graduate Quartet-in-Residence at the Stuttgart Hochschule fuer Musik und Darstellende Kunst under the Vogler Quartet in the fall of 2010.

Strongly committed to inspiring new audiences and strengthening communities through their own dedication to chamber music, the Vinca Quartet have helped launch multiple in-depth concert series serving communities overlooked by major classical groups. As part of their ongoing mission, the Vincas are working with the school systems and adult communities in the Columbia River Gorge region of Oregon and Washington to create a program (Gorgeous Sounds Residency) designed to bring music into a largely agriculturally-based community. In 2007-2008, the quartet also helped to establish Music Haven, a tuition-free strings and mentorship program devoted to transforming the lives of urban youth and their families in New Haven, CT through music. Other collaborative work this season includes exploring parallels between music and science with the Hertz Foundation, an organization aimed at nurturing remarkable applied scientists and engineers who show the most promise to change the world.
 

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