Telegraph Quartet - 2027

We finish our season with soon-to-be new friends, the Telegraph Quartet (Eric Chin and Joseph Maile, violins; Pei-Ling Lin, viola; Jeremiah Shaw, cello) who formed in 2013 with an equal passion for the standard chamber music repertoire and contemporary, non-standard works alike. Described by the San Francisco Chronicle as “…an incredibly valuable addition to the cultural landscape” and “powerfully adept… with a combination of brilliance and subtlety,” the Telegraph Quartet is a previous recipient of the prestigious Walter W. Naumburg Chamber Music Award and the Grand Prize at the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition.

The Telegraph Quartet is currently the Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Michigan. They have performed across the United States and abroad, including New York City’s Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and Town Hall, San Francisco’s Herbst Theatre, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s Chamber Music Tuesdays, Philharmonie de Paris, and at festivals including the Chautauqua Institute, Music in the Vineyards in Napa Valley, Interlochen Arts Festival, Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, and the Emilia Romagna Festival. Prior to their residency at the University of Michigan, the Telegraph was the Quartet-in-Residence at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music between 2017-2024.

Notable collaborations include projects with pianists Leon Fleisher and Simone Dinnerstein; vocalist Theo Bleckmann; composer and pianist Stephen Prutsman; cellists Norman Fischer and Bonnie Hampton; violinist Ian Swensen; and the St. Lawrence Quartet and Henschel Quartett. During the 2026-27 season, Telegraph will perform with acclaimed pianist Awadagin Pratt.

A fervent champion of 20th- and 21st-century repertoire, the Telegraph Quartet co-commissioned John Harbison’s String Quartet No. 6 and gave its West Coast premiere in the fall of 2017 on San Francisco State University’s Morrison Artists Series. The Telegraph Quartet premiered Richard Festinger’s third string quartet, Icarus in Flight, a musical representation of climate change data from the year 1880 to projected simulations of 2080. The Quartet gave the world premiere of Robert Sirota’s String Quartet No. 3, Wave Upon Wave, at Weill Recital Hall for their Carnegie Hall debut in 2018, sponsored by the Naumburg Foundation. In 2022, the Telegraph premiered Robert Sirota’s Contrapassos with soprano Abigail Fischer, featuring libretto by Stevan Cavalier and commissioned by Sierra Chamber Music Society. Also, in 2022, the Telegraph Quartet gave the world premiere of Osvaldo Golijov’s octet, Ever Yours, with the St. Lawrence String Quartet. Ever Yours was co-commissioned by the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, the String Quartet Biennale Amsterdam, and the Clarice Smith Center at the University of Maryland at Columbia.