The quartet wins $15,000, plus performance and recording opportunities
The 2025 edition of the Naumburg Chamber Music Competition was held on 8 and 9 December at the Morgan Library and Museum in New York City. Three groups made the final round: Terra Quartet, Trio Eris and Kodachrome Saxophone Quartet.
The Terra Quartet was awarded first prize, consisting of $15,000, recitals at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and Carnegie Hall, a commissioned work and a recording of the commissioned work.
The jury comprised David Geber, Charles Neidich, Anton Nel, Nicholas Mann, Todd Phillips, Lucy Shelton and Mark Steinberg.
The Terra Quartet comprises violinists Harriet Langley and Amelia Dietrich, violist Chih-Ta Chen and cellist Audrey Chen. The ensemble recently won second prize at both the 2025 Bordeaux and Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competitions.
The group won the grand prize and gold medal at the 2022 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and the Christine and David Anderson Career Development Prize at the 2022 Banff International String Quartet Competition the same year.
In 2023 the players came second at the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition and third at the Osaka International Chamber Music Competition.
The quartet is currently the fellowship quartet-in-residence at Yale University. It was also the 2024-25 Ernst Stiefel quartet-in-residence at Caramoor Center for Music and Arts, where it curated programmes centered around the the string quartets of Benjamin Britten.
The Terra Quartet was also the Project Music Heals Us Arts Leadership Ensemble in 2023-24.
Facilitated by the Walter W. Naumburg Foundation, the Naumburg Competition is held annually in rotating disciplines of violin, chamber music, cello, piano and saxophone. The previous winners of the 2021 chamber music edition was the Merz Trio.
The 2026 edition will be dedicated to the violin and will take place from 27 October to 1 November 2026.
Photos courtesy Walter W. Naumburg Foundation.
No comments yet