Chicago Piano Quartet - 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.