The Formosa Quartet is a string quartet, an incubator of creative ideas, a hub for multidisciplinary collaboration, and a catalyst for reimagining what a classical ensemble can be. We use the string quartet as a vehicle for advocacy, storytelling, and innovation.

During the course of the Formosa Quartet’s 20+ year career, we have taken immense pride in sharing the rich history of the string quartet tradition with unyielding invention and creativity. Our performances and discography of the string quartet literature have been described as “spellbinding” (The Strad), “remarkably fine” (Gramophone), and “unexpectedly thrilling… like shots of pure espresso” (MUSO Magazine). At the same time, the quartet has felt a strong desire to highlight its histories, starting with our founding members’ shared Taiwanese heritage. With longstanding and meaningful partnerships with award-winning composers including Shih-Hui Chen, Wei-Chieh Lin, and Lei Liang, the quartet has commissioned numerous works that amplify the stories and musical traditions of Indigenous Taiwanese tribes whose cultural identities have been at risk of erasure from centuries of sustained colonization and modern day assimilation. Using the string quartet to showcase these folk traditions, we have been honored to share these musical and cultural narratives in conversation with the Western European canon in concert halls, classrooms, and through our recording “From Hungary to Taiwan” (Bridge Records) worldwide.

As the quartet has evolved, so has our artistic identity.

Our advocacy and storytelling extend beyond mirroring our quartet’s current melting pot of Taiwanese-, Korean-, Polish-, Ukrainian-, and Jewish-American traditions. Our American Mirror Project holds a mirror up to America and highlights personal reflections on the history, identity, and meaning of "America.” We ask ourselves, our audiences, and the local communities where we perform: “What does your America look like?” “What does your America sound like?” and “What aspects of America reveal themselves to you through your lens?” Through commissions by Dana Wilson, Shih-Hui Chen, Paul Novak, Katinka Kleijn, and inti figgis-vizueta, each composer has created their own American mirrors while creating a vessel for holding the words of American communities. By inviting communities to mirror with us, we create a portal for their words and stories about their past, present, and future. Since the project’s inception in 2021, the American Mirror Project has been shared with communities in San Francisco, Houston, Washington D.C., San Diego, and Ypsilanti, Michigan. In the coming seasons, we are excited to collaborate on our project with community partners in Chicago, IL.

Collaboration and connection are at the heart of chamber music.

Though we never intended it as such, the American Mirror Project has transformed the quartet into a hub for multidisciplinary collaboration at the site of each iteration, enriching our knowledge of historical narratives and becoming a vehicle for communities to tell their stories. We are immensely grateful to collaborate with filmmakers, actors, music therapists, historians, students from many disciplines, community members and their leaders, arts administrators, and institutions across the country. Each American Mirror Project performance poignantly invites us to exchange a community-led dialogue and share a space of discovery and empathy. 

The Formosa Quartet is driven by curiosity while strongly holding itself to the task of reexamining its assumptions, preconceptions, boundaries, and “boxes.”

We believe the string quartet is far from a static form and view categorization of musical style as a limiting convention. Are we a classical ensemble? Yes and no. Are we a jazz ensemble? Yes and no. Are we a New Music ensemble? Yes and no. We also believe that the concert experience in its current form can encounter innovation and re-imagination. In 2015, we began redrawing the lines and expectations of what a classical ensemble can be. Alongside beloved works by Beethoven, Haydn, and Schubert, we began presenting an assortment of shorts from our exclusive collection of pop, folk, jazz, and spoken word poetry arrangements and original compositions. These collections are announced from the stage and have, over time, become known as “A Formosa Quartet Set.” Curated specially for each concert, our Set is like a flight of desserts after a main course, offering a chance for audiences to “let their hair down,” tap their toes, and enjoy the string quartet medium in somewhat less-conventional contexts. A decade ago, presenters and audiences were wary of such programming. We are proud that our Sets have become a signature element of our concerts and have paved the way for other classical music ensembles to present multi-genre works in their performances.

Moving forward, we continue to innovate the concert experience by reexamining the limits of a concert program, which is historically divided into three 20 to 25-minute segments. We are currently incubating a more dramatic unfolding without speaking or applause that takes the listener through a musical conversation and layering of aural and visual experiences.

Finally, our commitment to education and mentorship is an extension of our artistic identity of advocacy, storytelling, and innovation.

We proudly serve as the Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Houston and the National Youth Orchestra of Canada. During the 2023-204 season, we were honored to be appointed the M. Thelma McAndless Distinguished Professors in the Humanities at Eastern Michigan University where we collaborated with a community of over 14,000 people on our "American Mirror Project." In each guest residency at institutions across North America and Asia, we seek to empower the next generation of musicians and music lovers to find their own voice, to question inherited norms, and to view music not as a product, but as a vital means of connection, expression, and community building.

—Formosa Quartet