Beethoven meets Florence Price and Gershwin as the Renaissance String Quartet brings its fresh, inclusive approach to a programme spanning more than a century of chamber music.

Founded by four friends whose musical journey began at the Perlman Music Programme and continued at The Juilliard School, the Renaissance String Quartet brings together more than a decade of friendship and collaboration. With a commitment to expanding the chamber music canon, they bring a fresh perspective to the string quartet tradition.

Their programme opens with Beethoven’s String Quartet in F major, Op. 18, No. 1, a landmark work of imagination and emotional depth that helped shape the future of chamber music. Written more than a century later, Florence Price’s String Quartet No. 1 combines Romantic lyricism with influences drawn from African American musical traditions, showcasing the distinctive voice of one of the twentieth century’s most significant composers.

Completing the programme is Gershwin’s Lullaby, a charming miniature whose warmth, elegance and jazz-inflected harmonies reveal the unmistakable character of one of America’s best-loved musical voices.

This event will last for approximately 75 minutes, with no interval.

Renaissance String Quartet:

The Renaissance String Quartet was founded by violinists Randall Goosby and Jeremiah Blacklow, violist Jameel Martin, and cellist Daniel Hass, all graduates of the Juilliard School and the Perlman Music Program. The New York City-based quartet came together on the basis of over a decade of friendship and collaboration between the four members.

In line with their desire to create unique concert experiences, and buoyed by violist Jameel Martin’s ability to make friends with anyone and everyone, their first public performance as the Renaissance Quartet took place at the Hungarian Pastry Shop, a beloved and historic café on the Upper West Side. The unique setting played host to an earnest and weighty program of Mozart’s Dissonance Quartet, Brahms’ Quartet in A minor, and Beethoven’s seven-movement behemoth, the quartet Opus 131.

While they champion the quartets of Beethoven and Mozart, the quartet feels a responsibility to command a diverse repertoire of classical, underrepresented, and new works, so they can contribute to the reclamation, redefinition, and continuation of a musical tradition that belongs to all of us. They represent and articulate an inclusive vision of the future of classical music, which sees a culture of music wherein all lives and histories are welcomed and celebrated.

In the spring of 2023, the quartet embarked on an inspiring tour of Jamaica, performing and teaching at schools across the country. The tour culminated in a recital benefiting the Jamaica Red Cross and the Immaculate Conception High School Orchestra. They performed a variety of classical and Jamaican compositions, including cellist Daniel Hass’s kaleidoscopic quartet, Love and Levity, and original arrangements of Bob Marley and Jimmy Cliff songs. This residency exemplifies the kind of meaningful relationships the quartet seeks to foster with audiences around the world, bringing communities together through the power of music.

Through the lens of rebirth, the Renaissance Quartet will continue reimagining the role of the string quartet as a vehicle for change, and by doing so inspire audiences, students, and collaborators to do the same.