The Pacifica Quartet is known for the impeccable, stylish, and precise playing characteristic of individual and group artistry. Formed in 1994, the ensemble won the 1998 Naumburg Chamber Music Award, the Chamber Music America’s Cleveland Quartet Award, appointment to Lincoln Center’s The Bowers Program, and, in 2006, an Avery Fisher Career Grant.

The quartet has performed string quartet cycles, including the Mendelssohn, Beethoven, Carter, and Shostakovich cycles, to audiences around the world. Also ardent advocates of contemporary, the ensemble has commissioned and performed works by Keeril Makan, Julia Wolfe, and Shulamit Ran. Pacifica has appeared on prestigious stages across the United States, in Australia, England, and Japan.

Critics and audiences have praised the group’s artistry in both live performances and recordings. Their 2008 release of Elliott Carter’s Quartets Nos. 1 and 5 won a Grammy award, and their Shostakovich cycle, according to the Daily Telegraph, was “nothing short of phenomenal.”

The ensemble has recorded with Marc-André Hamelin, the late Menahem Pressler, and clarinetist Anthony McGill. They are the quartet-in-residence at the Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music.

Listen to Pacifica Quartet perform Beethoven: Quartet in B-flat major, Op. 18, No. 6 – III. Scherzo: Allegro