Current Season
The Chicago Piano Quartet - Sept. 26, 2025
THE CHICAGO PIANO QUARTET brings together four of its namesake city's most esteemed chamber players. Violinist Desirée Ruhstrat, cellist David Cunliffe, and pianist Marta Aznavoorian are well known to the BCMS as the Lincoln Trio, having performed three concerts here over the past 13 years. Ruhstrat, Cunliffe, and violist Aurélien Fort Pederzoli make up the critically-acclaimed Black Oak Ensemble, one of the most active string trios on the international scene. When the two trios combine, a 3 + 3 = 4, and they become the superlative CHICAGO PIANO QUARTET!
The honors, achievements, and critical acclaim garnered by the Lincoln Trio and the Black Oak Ensemble are numerous, including the Lincoln Trio’s 2017 GRAMMY Nomination for Best Performance by a Small Ensemble—their playing was praised by Joshua Kosman of the San Francisco Chronicle as "fervent and imaginative" and by The Strad as "sensational"—and Black Oak Ensemble's latest CD, which reached #1 in the Billboard Classical Charts. Fanfare said, "the players fully inhabit the spirit of whatever work they are playing at the moment, performing each one with as ardent a flame as if they had written it themselves.” Each member is an artist of international renown. Violinist Desirée Ruhstrat has performed throughout the US and Europe, appearing at the White House and performing on a live radio broadcast heard around the world with the Berlin Radio Orchestra; violist Aurélien Fort Pederzoli was a founding member of the ground-breaking, GRAMMY-nominated Spektral Quartet; cellist David Cunliffe has performed with the BBC and Royal Scottish orchestras as well as touring as a member of the Balanescu Quartet, and pianist Marta Aznavoorian has appeared with the Chicago Symphony and has performed at the Kennedy Center and the Sydney Opera House. The program they will perform to open our 2025-26 season includes Joaquín Turina’s Piano Quartet in A minor, op. 67, and Gabriel Fauré’s First Piano Quartet in C minor, op. 15.
November 7, 2025 Zemlinsky Quartet
Founded in 1994 while the members were still students, the ZEMLINSKY QUARTET has become a contemporary model of the Czech string quartet tradition. Winning the First Grand Prize at the Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition in 2010, they have also taken top prizes at the Banff International String Quartet Competition (2007), Prague Spring International Music Competition (2005) and London International String Quartet Competition (2006), where they also received the Audience Prize. The Quartet was recipient of the Alexander Zemlinsky Advancement Award in 2008. Other notable prizes include Beethoven International Competition (1999), New Talent Bratislava (2003), Martinů Foundation String Quartet Competition (2004), and the Prize of Czech Chamber Music Society (2005). In the season 2016/17, Zemlinsky Quartet was appointed as the residential ensemble of the Czech Chamber Music Society.
While students at the Prague Conservatory and the Academy of Performing Arts Prague, the ensemble was coached by members of renowned Czech string quartets including the Talich, Prague, Kocian and Pražák Quartets.
Zemlinsky Quartet is named after the Austrian composer, conductor and teacher Alexander Zemlinsky (1871-1942), whose enormous contribution to Czech, German and Jewish culture during his 16-year residence in Prague had been underrated until recently. His four string quartets (the second one being dedicated to his student and brother-in-law Arnold Schönberg) belong to the basic repertoire of the ensemble. Since 2005, the quartet has maintained a special relationship with the Alexander Zemlinsky Foundation in Vienna.
The Zemlinsky Quartet performs regularly in the Czech Republic and abroad (Germany, Switzerland, Austria, France, Monaco, Luxembourg, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Great Britain, Ireland, Hungary, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Canada, USA, Brazil, Japan, South Korea). Recent major appearances of the Zemlinsky Quartet include London’s Wigmore Hall, Cité de la Musique in Paris, Library of Congress, Place des Arts in Montreal, Prague Spring Festival, and their New York debut on Schneider/New School Concerts Series. Between 2006-2011, the Zemlinsky Quartet were Assistant Quartet-in-Residence at Musikakademie Basel in Switzerland. Recently, František Souček and Petr Holman have been appointed Professors at the Prague Conservatory. You can see how busy they are—it’s taken twelve years to bring them back to Boise.
February 27, 2026 Escher String Quartet
The ESCHER STRING QUARTET has received acclaim for its profound musical insight and rare tonal beauty. A former BBC New Generation Artist and recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant, the quartet has performed at the BBC Proms at Cadogan Hall and is a regular guest at Wigmore Hall. In its home town of New York, the ensemble serves as season artists of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.
The Escher Quartet has made a distinctive impression throughout Europe, with recent debuts including the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Berlin Konzerthaus, London’s Kings Place, Slovenian Philharmonic Hall, Les Grands Interprètes Geneva, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, and Auditorium du Louvre. The group has appeared at festivals such as the Heidelberg Spring Festival, Budapest’s Franz Liszt Academy, Dublin’s Great Music in Irish Houses, the Risør Chamber Music Festival in Norway, the Hong Kong International Chamber Music Festival, and the Perth International Arts Festival in Australia. Alongside its growing European profile, the Escher Quartet continues to flourish in its home country, performing at the Aspen Music Festival, Bravo! Vail, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Bowdoin Music Festival, Toronto Summer Music, Chamber Music San Francisco, Music@Menlo, and the Ravinia and Caramoor festivals.
In 2023 the Escher Quartet released two albums—string quartets by Pierre Jalbert and the Escher’s studio recording of the complete Janacek quartets and Pavel Haas quartet no. 2 with multi award winning percussionist Colin Currie (BIS Label). Recordings of the complete Mendelssohn quartets and beloved romantic quartets of Dvorak, Borodin and Tchaikovsky were released on the BIS label in 2015-18 and received with the highest critical acclaim, with comments such as “...eloquent, full-blooded playing... The four players offer a beautiful blend of individuality and accord” (BBC Music Magazine). In 2019, DANCE, an album of quintets with Grammy award winning guitarist Jason Vieaux, was enthusiastically received. In 2021, the Escher’s recording of the complete quartets of Charles Ives and Samuel Barber was met with equal excitement, including “A fascinating snapshot of American quartets, with a recording that is brilliantly detailed, this is a first-rate release all around” (Strad Magazine). The quartet has also recorded the complete Zemlinsky String Quartets in two volumes, released on the Naxos label in 2013 and 2014.
The Escher Quartet takes its name from the Dutch graphic artist M.C. Escher, inspired by Escher’s method of interplay between individual components working together to form a whole.
April 17, 2026 Kenari Saxophone Quartet
Hold on to your hats, ladies and gentlemen, we’re hosting a saxophone quartet again! It’s only been 12 years since the last time (and before that, our first was in 1993), but we all agree that it’s time, and we are convinced we chose perfectly among the many rising stars of this ubiquitous modern chamber music medium.
Applauded for their “flat-out amazing” performances and “stunning virtuosity” (Cleveland Classical), the highly acclaimed KENARI delivers inspiring performances that transform the perception of the saxophone. The quartet aims to highlight the instrument’s remarkable versatility by presenting meticulously crafted repertoire from all periods of classical and contemporary music.
Recent engagements include their New York City debut on the People’s Symphony Concerts series, as well as appearances at Chamber Music Northwest, Chamber Music Tulsa, String Theory, Beaches Fine Arts, Schneider Concerts, and Chamber Music Utica, among others. In 2023, the Fischoff National Chamber Music Association presented the group with the Ann Divine Educator Award. As a result, they participated in Fischoff’s flagship S.A.M. I Am Arts-in-Education Residency program, a weeklong program in which the group created and performed a musical rendition of Malcolm Mitchell’s My Very Favorite Book in the Whole Wide World. The quartet advocates passionately for the music of living composers and has given world premieres of new works. In the 2024-2025 season, Kenari gave the world premiere of a work by Steven Banks, the group’s baritone saxophonist, which will serve as a substantial addition to the saxophone quartet repertoire.
