The Juilliard School announces its new graduate resident quartet

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The Katarina Quartet has been named the next graduate resident string quartet at the Juilliard School. The ensemble’s two-year residency begins in September 2024 and runs through spring 2026. The Canadian ensemble comprises violinists Jeanel Liang and Jérôme Chiasson, violist Celia Morin, and cellist Maya Enstad, and was founded in 2022 under the tutelage of André Roy at McGill University in Montreal. 

Inspired by Katarina Guarneri, the wife of the renowned violin maker Giuseppe Guarneri ’del Gesù’, the quartet pays tribute to lesser-known women whose uncredited contributions have helped paved the way in the creation of classical music for centuries. The Katarina Quartet was recently awarded the gold medal and the BIPOC Composer Prize at the Saint Paul String Quartet Competition. Previously, the quartet won first prize at the Canadian Music and McGill Chamber Music competitions.

The quartet has studied with members of the Alban Berg, Dover, and Danel quartets. It has coached extensively with André Roy at McGill University and Gerhard Schulz at the International Musicians Seminar in Prussia Cove, UK, as well as with the Pacifica Quartet and Atar Arad at the 2023 professional string quartet studies programme in Bloomington, IN. The Katarina Quartet participated as a senior quartet at the McGill International String Quartet Academy last August and was most recently featured at the Robert Mann String Quartet Institute in New York City. The members of the quartet are regular featured artists at central classical music societies in Montreal and cherish their connection to the city.

’We are pleased to welcome the Katarina Quartet to this long-standing string quartet-in-residence position at Juilliard,’ said David Serkin Ludwig, dean and director of Juilliard’s Music Division. ’This ensemble shares our commitment to tradition and innovation, performing works by composers ranging from Haydn to Vivian Fung. We are excited to have the quartet join our community and know they will flourish in their opportunity to work with members of the legendary Juilliard Quartet, the primary mentors in the programme.’

As Lisa Arnhold Fellows at Juilliard, the members of the Katarina Quartet will perform an annual recital at Alice Tully Hall in New York, coach regularly with the Juilliard Quartet (JSQ), and participate in the annual Juilliard String Quartet Seminar. They will also assist the JSQ with its ensemble and chamber music instruction, coach other student ensembles, and assist in the first year String Quartet Survey class. Upon successful completion of their Juilliard residency, in 2026, each of the quartet members will be awarded an Artist Diploma in String Quartet Studies.

’The Katarina Quartet will bring much to Juilliard’s chamber music culture,’ said Merry Peckham, assistant dean and director of chamber music. ’This wonderful quartet will be a force for good in the name of great chamber music making.’

The most recent Juilliard quartet in residence, Ivalas Quartet completes its residency at the end of the 2024 semester. Other Juilliard graduate string quartets in residence have included the Aeolus, Afiara, Attacca, Avalon, Biava, Calder, Cassatt, Chiara, Corigliano, Essex, Lark, Maia, Magellan (now the Whitman Quartet), Miró, St. Lawrence, Shanghai, Ulysses, and Verona quartets.

Juilliard’s graduate resident string quartet is supported by the Arnhold Foundation and the George L. Shields Foundation.

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