Formosa Quartet kicks off the summer season on home turf at the Texas Music Festival hosted by the University of Houston.
We are thrilled to continue our summer by working with some talented young string quartets at Laurier University’s QuartetFest. To cap off the week, we will join the Penderecki String Quartet for Enescu’s monumental Octet, Op. 7.
We are always eager to cap off the season with two weeks with the wonderful students at NYO Canada, our home away from home. With state of the art facilities, cutting edge programming, and a formidable administrative team, musical possibilities, like the poutine, are endless.
We look forward to performing with pianist and co-artistic director of Lyrica Chamber Music, David Kaplan, described by The New York Times as “excellent and adventurous,” and praised by the Boston Globe for his “grace and fire” at the keyboard. The program will feature music by Haydn, Dana Wilson, and Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet.
Join us for an interactive family program at the historic Liberty Hall at Kean University. Music of Schubert and Shostakovich will feel youthful wafting between 250 year old walls, intermingling with a rich history stretching back to the American Revolution.
For the culmination of our week at UH, we will present a recital at Dudley Recital Hall featuring Schubert Rosamunde and an exciting collaboration with Moores School of Music faculty, Bass-Baritone Timothy Jones.
P.D.Q Bach - A Little Nightmare Music
A Formosa Set*
Schubert - String Quartet No. 13 in A minor, D 804 “Rosamunde”
Join Jasmine, David and University of Houston students for a deep dive into the violin repertoire. In this two hour masterclass, we will explore the musical nooks and crannies, confront the technical ins and outs, and turn over all of the metaphorical stones.
Don’t miss our very own Debbie Pae working with the mighty UH cellists in plumbing truth from the depths of the music, and depth of tone from the uniquely sonorous violoncello.
Formosa Quartet’s Matthew Cohen leads a masterclass/guided tour through the wide wide (and ever expanding) world of music for solo viola. The combination of Matt’s heroic and virtuosic mission to annex both the violin and cello repertoires and the fearlessness of Moores’s violists will guarantee the flying of sparks.
Formosa Quartet returns to the University of Houston for Part II of our second season as Quartet in Residence at the Moores School of Music. We look forward to a host of workshops, masterclasses, and dialogues with the wonderful students of UH that are sure to inspire and invigorate.
We cannot wait to return to Four Seasons Arts in Berkeley, California this 2024-2025 season! Our performance in 2019 to a packed house with the most generous reception was beyond memorable. The Bay Area is a special place for us and we hope many of you will join us. Save the date in your calendar!
Join us for the haunting storytelling of Schubert’s Rosamunde Quartet while being swept up in the vineyards and Pacific views of the “American Riviera”. We are excited to present a music from across five centuries at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, whose permanent collection spans nearly 5000 years!
Program:
Bach - The Art of Fugue BWV 1080 (Contrapuncti I, XIII, III, IX)
Schubert - String Quartet No. 13 in A minor, D. 804 “Rosamunde”
—Intermission—
A Formosa Set*
(*) An assortment of shorts from the FQ’s collection of folk, pop, jazz, and poetry arrangements
CMA holds an annual National Conference, and the Formosa Quartet is excited to attend the 2025 conference in Houston, TX. The last time we played on a showcase was in 2015, and it’ll be thrilling to be among the movers and shakers at the biggest chamber music party of the year!
Program:
Beethoven - String Quartet in F major, Op. 18 No. 1 (IV. Allegro)
*A Formosa Set
(*) An assortment of shorts from the FQ’s collection of folk, pop, jazz, and poetry arrangements. Musical surprises to be expected and works will be announced from the stage!
It’s been a year of deli cravings, fish market fantasies and excitement for a return to the vibrancy of Ann Arbor’s Kerrytown. We can’t wait to present a very special program as part of Artistic Director Monica Swartout-Bebow’s series at the historic Kerrytown Concert House.
Memories of steep cliffs, sprawling coastline and the call of owls at night have lingered vividly since our last visit to Gualala in 2019. It is the perfect terrain that will amplify the haunting romanticism of Schubert’s “Rosamunde” Quartet.
Program:
Bach: Selected Chorales
Schubert: String Quaret No. 13 in A minor, D 804 “Rosamunde”
***
A Formosa Quartet Set*
(*) An assortment of shorts from the FQ’s collection of folk, pop, jazz, and poetry arrangements
New Jersey is where some of our family, oldest friends, favorite kimchi-makers, most visionary colleagues, and strongest memories are. So this is for all of you – a potent, pensive, and playful program that packs a punch.
Program:
Bach: Selected Chorales
Schubert: String Quartet No. 13 in A minor, D 804 “Rosamunde”
A Formosa Quartet Set*
(*) An assortment of shorts from the FQ’s collection of folk, pop, jazz, and poetry arrangements
The Co-Artistic Director of Opus 71 Concerts is also our violist! We are happy to be invited – and we didn’t even ply him with banana cream pie.
Program:
Schubert: String Quartet No. 13 in A minor, D 804 “Rosamunde”
A Formosa Quartet Set*
(*) An assortment of shorts from the FQ’s collection of folk, pop, jazz, and poetry arrangements
The Wild, the Pop, and the Comic | Formosa Quartet in Collaboration with UH
Our week at UH culminates with a much anticipated collaboration with faculty and students at the stunning Hobby Center in downtown Houston. Although we are exploring it for the first time, the center opened in 2002 and the grounds have been home to several important arts and cultural centers going back almost a century! Purchase Tickets today!
Program:
Geminiani / Michi Wiancko: La Follia
— UH String Orchestra, Kirsten Yon and Mann-Wen Lo (violins); Amber Archibald (viola); Eunghee Cho (cello); Formosa Quartet
A Formosa Quartet Set
* intermission *
Stephen Prutsman: “Sherlock Jr” with a screening of Buster Keaton's 1924 comedy “Sherlock, Jr.”
— Timothy Hester, piano; Formosa Quartet
The community at UH truly feels like family, and we can’t wait to reunite for the start of our second season as Quartet in Residence at the Moores School of Music. This week will include a host of workshops, masterclasses, and dialogues that are sure to inspire and invigorate.
Formosa Quartet heads over to Stillwater, OK where we are excited to reconnect with McKnight Center Director of Artistic Planning Argeo Ascani for this Tuesday evening recital featuring Beethoven String Quartet Op. 18 No. 1 and a specially curated Formosa Set.
Following the previous night’s soiree, we look forward to a program abounding in youthful energy to TPAC’s Williams Theater. Beethoven’s first (dazzling) attempt at writing a string quartet is paired with Haydn’s penultimate opus - written within one year of each other!
Program:
Haydn - String Quartet in G major, Op. 77 No. 1
A Formosa Set*
(Including Rhiannon Giddens At the Purchaser’s Option and Charlton Singleton Testimony)
Beethoven - String Quartet in F major, Op. 18 No. 1
(*) An assortment of shorts from the FQ’s collection of folk, pop, jazz, and poetry arrangements
We are excited to be opening the season with a debut at Chamber Music Tulsa! Join us for the first of two performances at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center - a Saturday night salon in the Westby Pavillion. Music, food, drinks, and conversation will be aflow!
Program:
Haydn: String Quartet in G major, Op. 77, No. 1, Hob.III:81
A Formosa Quartet Set
FQ looks forward to working with NYO Canada’s wonderful students in 2 weeks of chamber music coachings, lessons, masterclasses, seminar, and performances! For more information, visit https://nyoc.org/
For over three decades, the Immanuel and Helen Olshan Texas Music Festival has brought Classical music’s rising stars to Houston for intensive study and exceptional performance. The Formosa Quartet looks forward to their inaugural summer at TMF as the resident string quartet faculty where they will collaborate with TMF’s world class faculty and conduct intensive chamber music coachings with all of the student chamber music.
Formosa Quartet returns to the Maui Chamber Music Festival where we cannot wait to make music with our dear friends and music directors, Yizhak Schotten and Katherine Collier, and rockstar musician colleagues from all over the country. Click for more information about the schedule of concerts!
What better way to cap off our return to Taiwan than a performance at the gorgeous National Recital Hall! Post-concert night market celebration? Most definitely!
Our journey in the south of Taiwan continues with a performance at the Pingtung Performing Arts Center!
Hsinchu – did you know that its nickname is the Windy City? A breeze for those visiting from Chicago.
Our first stop in Taiwan is in Taoyuan. For all those with just enough layover time, Mozart, Dvorak, and a Formosa Quartet Set await your ears.
We’re excited to make our Malaysian debut as the opening event on this tour!
Our Taiwan tour, after multiple pandemic-related postponements, is HAPPENING!! One of our favorite places to play, celebrate, dine, breakfast, snack, hang, laugh, walk, relax, and seven. Yes, you can use seven as a verb. Dates and venues will be posted soon.
We are thrilled to be joining the talented students of the Academy of MIC for a masterclass this afternoon! The Academy is an intensive program for exceptionally gifted pre-college students, offering a rich curriculum of classes and performance opportunities geared towards preparing the nation’s top young musicians for the next chapters of their lives. Led by Executive Director Sue Polutnik and Director James Setapen, the Academy draws students from all across the country, some flying over a thousand miles weekly to attend.
This intimate space, located in the bustle of downtown Chicago, overlooks one of the most perfect lakefront views in the city. Nab a front row seat to enjoy Formosa Quartet’s tonal painting while the surrounding sky and water change color just as dramatically…
🚨 CAPACITY FOR THIS EVENT IS NOW FULL. We look forward to seeing you at a future performance!
