February 19, 2023
Quartet Bio
BIOGRAPHY
Described by the Washington Post as “completely engrossing, powerful and elegant” the Cavani Quartet’s artistic excellence, generous spirit, and their fervent ambassadorship for great music has placed them among America’s greatest string quartets. The quartet’s more than thirty year legacy has garnered impressive recognition including The Naumburg Award, Ohio Governors Award for the Arts, Musical America Magazine’s Young Artists of the Year,The Cleveland Quartet Award, ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming, two time winner of The Guarneri Quartet Award Artistic Excellence, and recipients of than ten Chamber Music America Residency Partnership Grants. The Cavani Quartet continues their journey maintaining an energetic balance between performing cycles of Beethoven and Bartôk quartets, collaborating with living composers such as Gabriela Lena Frank and Joan Tower, and creating multifaceted programming that combines music, poetry, and dance. Passionate leaders in the field of arts advocacy and education, the Cavani Quartet views the empathy and connectivity of chamber music as metaphor for the kind of communication that we should strive for between races, cultures and nations. The quartet continues to inspire and shape the musical lives of the next generation through their acclaimed Art of Collaboration Seminar, and a soon to be published guidebook, which emphasizes a team -work approach to chamber music rehearsal techniques. The Cavani Quartet has toured throughout all fifty states, and internationally, performing at some of the worlds most prestigious festivals, including The Perlman Music Program, The New World Symphony, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Kniesel Hall, Interlochen Center for the Arts, Madeline Island, Chautauqua Festival, Aspen Music Festival, Encore Chamber Music, The Ijsbreker series in Amsterdam and Pro Quartet, France. The Quartet has been featured on National Public Radio’s Performance Today and St Paul Sunday Morning, as well as syndicated quiz show “Says You”. The Cavani Quartet’s discography includes works by Beethoven, Ravel, Bartók, Dvořák, Schumann, Brahms, Shostakovich, Erb, Chausson, Brouwer and Primosch. The Cavani Quartet has commissioned, premiered and performed the music of more than thirty living composers, including Josh Henderson, Joan Tower, Donald Erb and Margaret Brouwer, and collaborated with some of the greatest artists of our time including Alisa Weilerstein, Itzhak Perlman, Sergei Babayan, Jaime Laredo, Joseph Kalichstein, Sharon Robinson, Kim Kashkashian as well as members of the Cleveland,Takacs, Juilliard, Tokyo, Ying, Emerson, Cleveland, St Lawrence, Amadeus and Guarneri Quartets. For more than 30 years, the Cavani String Quartet served as faculty Artists- in -Residence at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where they inaugurated nationally acclaimed programs for student ensembles devoted to the serious study of chamber music. These include The Intensive Quartet Seminar, The Apprentice Quartet Program, The Art of Collaboration : Rehearsal Techniques Seminar, and The Art of Engagement: Careers and Leadership in Music.The Cavani Quartet is proud and privileged to have taught and mentored members of many distinguished ensembles who have participated in these programs including the Jupiter, Miro, Dali, Verona, Daedalus, Catalyst, Omer, Attacca, Fry Street, Biava, Telegraph, Maia, Linden, Harlem, Kasa and Afiara String Quartets, as well as members of the New York Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, The Cleveland Orchestra, St Paul Chamber Orchestra, ECCO, A Far Cry, and The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Innovative programming includes COLLAGE: Music and Poetry, with Poet and Professor of Pan African Studies Mwatabu Okantah, and TEAM UP with MUSIC© to ignite instrumental school programs. The Art of Collaboration: Building Empowered Teams is offered as a supplement to the MBA and EMBA Leadership courses at The Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University. The Quartet has served as Visiting Artists at The University of Texas, Austin, The University of Southern Illinois, Carbondale, The University of California, Riverside, The Mc Duffie Center for Strings, and The University of Iowa String Quartet Residency Program. The Quartet has been on the Advisory Board of Amateur Chamber Music Players and currently serves on the Honorary Board of the Suzuki Association of the Americas and was honored to participate in The Violins of Hope Project violinsofhopecle.org. The Cavani Quartet serves as Artistic Directors of Arts Renaissance Tremont artconcerts.org. For more information please visit cavani.org