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Attacca Quartet

Attacca Quartet: Winnipeg New Music Festival

Grammy award-winning Attacca Quartet, as described by The Nation, “lives in the present aesthetically, without rejecting the virtues of the musical past”, and it is this dexterity to glide from the music of the 18th through to the 21st century repertoire that places them  as one of the most versatile and outstanding ensembles of the moment – a quartet for modern times.

Touring extensively in the United States, recent highlights include Lincoln Center’s White Lights Festival and Miller Theatre, both with Caroline Shaw, Phillips Collection where they have been re-invited this season, Chamber Music Detroit, Red Bank Chamber Music Society, Chamber Music Austin, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, Banff String Quartet Festival and other  upcoming engagements at Dumbarton Oaks, Ojai Music Festival,  La Jolla Music Society Summerfest,  Bang on a Can Festival in Brooklyn and The Rite of Summer at Governors Island. Attacca Quartet has also served as the Quartet in Residence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Ensemble-in-Residence at the School of Music at Texas State University and Juilliard’s Graduate Resident String Quartet, where they will premiere their new film Plan and Elevation (featuring the music of the same name by Caroline Shaw)  this year.

Outside of the US, recent performances include their debut in London at Kings Place and in Oslo at the Vertavo Haydn Festival as well as performances at Gothenburg Konserthuset, MITO Septembre Festival in Italy and Sociedad Filarmónica de Bilbao. This season will also see them touring again in South America – including Sala São Paulo in Brazil, Fundacion Beethoven in Chile and Teatro Mayor in Bogota and Spain as well as taking part in Norfolk and Norwich Festival in the UK. This season Attacca Quartet has also been exploring new digital formats, taking part and also producing a number of filmed and streamed concerts for Banff Centre International String Quartet Festival, Duke Performances, Austin Chamber Music Center, as well as their upcoming digital engagement for Szczecin Philharmonic Orchestra.

Passionate advocates of contemporary repertoire, the Quartet are dedicated to presenting and recording new works. Their latest recording project, Orange, for which they received the 2020 Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music/​Small Ensemble Performance, features string quartet works by Pulitzer-prize winning composer Caroline Shaw. Greatly received and praised by the critics, it has also been featured in NPR´s List of ‘25 Best Albums of 2019’ and ‘10 Classical Albums to Usher in the Next Decade’ and in New York Times’ list of the ‘25 Best Classical Music Tracks of 2019’ for Valencia. It was also shortlisted for the 2020 BBC Music Magazine Awards and several Opus Klassik Awards.

Previous recordings include three critically acclaimed albums with Azica Records, including a disc of Michael Ippolito’s string quartets, and the complete works for string quartet by John Adams.  The latter was praised by Steve Smith of The New York Times as a “vivacious, compelling set” and described the Attacca Quartet’s playing as “exuberant, funky, and … exactingly nuanced.”  The album was the recipient of the 2013 National Federation of Music Clubs Centennial Chamber Music Award.  Additional awards for their recordings include both the Arthur Foote Award from the Harvard Musical Association and Lotos Prize in the Arts from the Stecher and Horowitz Foundation

Other accolades include First Prize at the 7th Osaka International Chamber Music Competition, the Top Prize and Listeners’ Choice award winners for the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition, and Grand Prize Winners of the 60th annual Coleman Chamber Ensemble Competition.

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