The American Record Guide“Huge range of dynamics, massive sound, and spontaneity…all the warmth, balanced sound, rhythmic solidity, and elegance one could wish for.”
The New Yorker“…the Viano String Quartet, a superb North American group, played the unfinished Second Quartet, which makes one regret that Rachmaninoff neglected chamber music in his maturity.”
Seen and Heard International“Glamorous, intoxicated by the full panoply of sound, color and dynamics.”
Boston Globe“…the Viano quickly notched a number of competition victories and have since been on a sharply ascending professional flight path. It’s not hard to see why. They do indeed play with a rare unity of intention and a clearly profiled collective voice, one that blends virtuosity and visceral expression in a way that produces a distinct ensemble personality…Many young quartets learn to express themselves eloquently, but this one, it is clear, also has something to say.”
Dallas Morning News“Their trust and cohesiveness made it seem like they’ve been performing together all of their lives.”
BachTrack“In a field of quartets that already were clearly working closely on stage, the Viano had created an especially strong sense of being composed of equals in Haydn, Debussy and Schubert.”
Calgary Herald“…the Viano Quartet was more extrovert, impressing the audience with its superlative account of Bartok’s Fourth String Quartet in the first round and bringing listeners to their feet with its thrilling account of Beethoven’s String Quartet, Op. 59, No. 3 (“Razumovsky”).”
The Boston Musical Intelligencer“Viano led off with Jessie Montgomery’s string quartet hit, Strum. The sparse and semi-masked audience thundered its reception of the rhythmically charged work from 2006. No wonder the piece quickly lifted Montgomery into stardom and has since been widely performed. After their spectacular strumming performance, violinist Lucy Wang spoke about having wanted to get up and dance. There were piquant moments, too, and Viano’s gusto fit just right with Montgomery’s embrace of Black-American vibes…The Evergreen, Shaw’s 2020 string quartet in four movements: “Moss” as high-up harmonics; “Stem” as basic bowing; “Water” as pizzicato; and “Roots” as underlying ostinato. Shaw’s craft and Viano’s artistry was another fine fit…To wrap up their power-packed show, Viano continued with String Quartet No. 13, op 106, in G Major, Op. 106 by Czech master Antonín Dvořák…violist Kane offered moments of lyricism, and the quartet stirred passion in the third movement’s final run of the main theme and its quick directional shifts.”
my/maSCENA“An ensemble ready for prime time…Control of dynamic subtlety and the ethereal features of impressionistic writing.”
Praised for their “virtuosity, visceral expression, and rare unity of intention”(Boston Globe), the Viano String Quartet are First Prize winners of the 2019 Banff International String Quartet Competition. Formed in 2015 at the Colburn Conservatory of Music in Los Angeles, where they were Ensemble-in-Residence through the 2020-21 season, the quartet has performed in venues such as Wigmore Hall, Place Flagey, Konzerthaus Berlin, and Segerstrom Center for the Arts. The quartet has been named the Nina von Maltzahn string quartet-in-residence at the Curtis Institute of Music for 2021/2022 and 2022/2023 season.
Summer of 2022 brings re-invitations to Great Lakes and Rockport Music Festivals, as well as performances at Chamber Music Northwest (Protégé Project 3-week residency), Tannery Pond under the auspice of Capitol Region Classical, Victoria Summer Music Festival, Bard Music Festival finished with a residency at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. In the fall Viano will be making their Lucerne Festival and Wigmore Hall debuts followed by performances in Oklahoma, California, Texas, Florida, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, Delaware, Tennessee, Washington DC and Canada. March 2023 marks the beginning of their three year residency with Music in the Morning in Vancouver where they will create programming to include artist collaborations, extensive community engagement and masterclasses.
As part of the Banff International String Quartet Competition prize, the quartet is in residence at the Meadows School of Music at the Southern Methodist University through the 2022-23 season. For two weeks each semester, they will perform side-by-side concerts, coach chamber ensembles, and initiate projects within the SMU community. Recent highlights include performances on three continents, including debuts in Berlin, Paris, Bremen, Brussels, Vancouver, and Beijing, among other cities. They have collaborated with world-class musicians such as pianists Emanuel Ax, Marc-André Hamelin and Elisso Virsaladze, violists Paul Coletti and Paul Neubauer, violinist Noah Bendix-Balgley, vocalist Hila Plitmann and clarinetist David Shifrin.
The quartet achieved incredible success in their formative years, with an unbroken streak of top prizes. In addition to their career-defining achievement at the 2019 Banff International String Quartet Competition, where they were among the youngest First Prize winners in history, they also received the Grand Prize at the 2019 ENKOR International Music Competition and second prize at the 2019 Yellow Springs Chamber Music Competition. At the 2018 Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition they received Third Prize, the Haydn Prize for the best performance of a Haydn quartet, and the Sidney Griller Award for the best performance of the compulsory work, Thomas Ades’ “The Four Quarters”. They received the Silver Medal at the 2018 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and Third Prize at the 9th Osaka International Chamber Music Competition in 2017.
Since the Covid-19 pandemic started, the Viano String Quartet actively presented virtual and socially distanced live concerts for various organizations, including the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, Friends of Chamber Music of Troy, Salt Lake Chamber Music Society, Dallas Chamber Music Society, Schneider Series at the New School, and the Banff International String Quartet Festival. With their colleagues in the Calidore String Quartet, they presented a movement of the Mendelssohn Octet while distanced across countries in a film project “The Way Forward.” Committed to engaging with communities outside the concert hall, the Viano String Quartet has given presentations for school children and students of all ages through residencies in Bellingham, Washington—the “Play it Forward” residency, a collaboration between the Bellingham Festival of Music and the Whatcom Symphony to reach school children in the northern Washington State area—Northern Michigan University, and the Santa Monica Conservatory. In 2019 they gave multiple performances of “Over the Top”, a Musical Encounter Interactive presentation they scripted, developed and performed at the Colburn School for inner city school children.
The Vianos currently work primarily with faculty members of the Curtis Institute of Music, including the Dover Quartet, Shmuel Ashkenasi, Steven Tenenbom, and Peter Wiley. Their past mentors include Colburn Conservatory of Music faculty members Martin Beaver, Scott St. John, Clive Greensmith, Paul Coletti and Fabio Bidini. They have received coachings from artists such as David Finckel, Gary Hoffman, Arnold Steinhardt, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, and members of the Alban Berg, Brentano, Emerson, Miró, Shanghai, St. Lawrence, and Takács String Quartets. They have attended the Ravinia Steans Chamber Music Institute, the St. Lawrence String Quartet Seminar, the Festival d’Aix en Provence, the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, and the McGill International String Quartet Academy.
The name “Viano” was created to describe the four individual instruments in a string quartet interacting as one. Each of the four instruments begins with the letter “v”, and like a piano, all four string instruments together play both harmony and melody, creating a unified instrument called the “Viano”.
AUGUST 2022
