ABBA

Taking its name from the Pacific Ocean, this string quartet was established on the West Coast of America in 1994 by a group of musicians who had become acquainted as teenagers after attending various chamber music events. These musicians were the violinists Simin Ganatra and Sibbi Bernhardsson and the cellist Brandon Vamos with the violist Masumi Per Rostad being a later addition.

The quartet quickly established itself and has since won prestigious competitions on a regular basis. A few of the many include the 1997 Concert Artists Guild Competition, the 2002 Chamber Music America’s Cleveland Quartet Award and the 2009 Musical American’s Ensemble Award. They were also awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2006.

Regular participants in music festivals they have taught at the Madeline Island Music Festival and the Interlochen Arts Camp and are often guest residents at nationwide schools and universities. Most recently they have been guests at Boston’s Longy School of Music, are the Faculty Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Chicago and the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art.

They are also known for their broad musical repertoire that includes at least eight new works each year performed at national and international concerts and on various broadcasts by prominent American radio stations. No strangers to the recording studio they have made several albums that include Declarations: Music Between the Wars, the complete string quartets of Easley Blackwood, the complete music for string quartet by Felix Mendelssohn and their Grammy winning complete string quartets of Eliot Carter.

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