Viano Quartet

Praised for its “huge range of dynamics, massive sound and spontaneity” (American Record Guide), the Viano String Quartet is the first-prize winner of the 2019 Banff International String Quartet Competition. Formed in 2015 at the Colburn Conservatory of Music, where it served as the inaugural ensemble in residence through the 2020–21 season, the quartet has performed in venues such as Wigmore Hall, Place Flagey, Izumi Hall, Konzerthaus Berlin, and Segerstrom Center for the Arts.

The Viano String Quartet serves as quartet in residence at the Curtis Institute of Music in 2021–22. In addition to their role at Curtis, the quartet is in residence at Southern Methodist University’s Meadows School of the Arts through the 2022–23 season, part of the Banff competition prize.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic started, the Viano String Quartet has presented virtual and socially-distanced concerts for the Dallas Chamber Music Society, the Schneider Concerts at the New School, the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, the Friends of Chamber Music of Troy, the Chamber Music Society of Salt Lake City, and the Banff Centre International String Quartet Festival, among others; and participated with the Calidore String Quartet in a film project called The Way Forward.

In 2019 the Viano String Quartet received the grand prize at the ENKOR International Music Competition and second prize at the Chamber Music in Yellow Springs Competition. Other honors include the silver medal at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition in 2018; third prize at the Osaka International Chamber Music Competition in 2017; and third prize, the Haydn Prize, and the Sidney Griller Award at the Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition in 2018. The quartet has participated in Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute, the St. Lawrence String Quartet Chamber Music Seminar, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, and the McGill International String Quartet Academy.

Committed to engaging with communities outside the concert hall, the Viano String Quartet has given presentations for school children and students of all ages in partnership with Northern Michigan University, Santa Monica Conservatory of Music, Colburn’s Musical Encounter program, and the Bellingham Festival of Music and Whatcom Symphony.

The name “Viano” was created to describe the four individual instruments in a string quartet, each beginning with the letter “v,” interacting, as a piano does, as one unified instrument.