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’re excited to make our Malaysian debut as the opening event on this tour!
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.
Hsinchu – did you know that its nickname is the Windy City? A breeze for those visiting from Chicago.
Our journey in the south of Taiwan continues with a performance at the Pingtung Performing Arts Center!
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!
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!
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.
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/
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!
We look forward to sharing our program titled Unexpected and Thrilling with music lovers in Ann Arbor, Michigan! The first half of the program features Mozart's "Dissonance" Quartet. Perhaps Mozart's most famous string quartet, the piece owes its nickname to the jarring and unexpected harmonies that introduce the first movement. The rest of the program is devoted to "A Formosa Quartet Set," an assortment of shorts from the FQ’s collection of folk, pop, jazz, and poetry arrangements. Curated especially for each concert, an FQ 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.
We culminate our residency as the 2023-2024 McAndless Distinguished Professor Chair at Eastern Michigan University with our program “American Mirror” featuring music by Derrick Skye and Formosa Quartet’s Roadmap, a selection of iconic songs that shaped American popular music and culture arranged by some of today’s most celebrated composers. Get your FREE TICKETS at Ludus.
In this second week of onsite residence at EMU as the McAndless Distinguished Professor Chair, we continue to probe the questions posed by our American Mirror Project as we offer a week of music and dialog revolving around our American Mirror Program, the centerpiece of which will be our own brand-new commission, Dana Wilson’s Mirror, a piece which invites the community in which we perform to add their own ‘American mirrors’ directly to the performance.
Formosa Quartet returns to the city of Houston with a performance at the POST, the former and historic Barbara Jordan Post Office in downtown. They’ll be performing works by Mozart, Dvorak, and a Formosa Quartet Set specially curated to fit the dynamic space. RSVP to reserve your seat!
Some of our topmost highlights of the year are our weeks at UH, collaborating with the amazing students and string faculty there, exploring new projects, exchanging ideas, continuing the never-ending dialog about the relevance of our work and its sociocultural ramifications and responsibilities.
The Formosa Quartet presents “The American Mirror Project: A Reflection of Ypsilanti” as part of their socio-culturally probing project. This program explores the richness of Ypsilanti, Michigan—the land of the Anishinaabe or “original people,” the city’s deep gospel traditions and its role as a major stop on the Underground Railroad to the present day mirrors contributed by members of the Eastern Michigan University community. This program will include…
Come observe the Formosa Quartet work with students in the EMU Choir. This open rehearsal will center around a collaboration featured on “The American Mirror Project | An Ypsilanti Mirror” concert on Saturday, January 20 at 7:30 PM.
The Formosa Quartet is honored to perform in Eastern Michigan University’s Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration concert in historic Pease Auditorium. This concert includes a collection of performances by EMU Students/Staff, Alumni and Community Members.
Come observe the Formosa Quartet work with students in the EMU Symphony Orchestra. This open rehearsal will center around a collaboration featured on “The American Mirror Project: A Reflection of Ypsilanti” concert on Saturday, January 20 at 7:30 PM.
Curious how an award-winning chamber music ensemble works behind-the-scenes? How do they dissect pieces of music, learn to create a cohesive sound, communicate ideas from concept to physical execution? Come observe an open rehearsal by the award-winning Formosa Quartet followed by a Q&A with the artists.
In this special McAndless Lecture presented by Eastern Michigan University’s Honors College Star Lecture Series, join the Formosa Quartet on a musical tour of America. From the blues to bluegrass to jazz to Motown, the Formosa Quartet will discuss the historical context behind musical selections as well as the group’s own journey in developing the American Mirror Project inspired by Derek Skye’s work of the same name. The American Mirror Project, which examines perceptions and assumptions about American culture through the lens of music and the performing arts, seeks to hold a mirror up to America through thought-provoking and dynamic musical performances. Read more…
The Formosa Quartet begins their first on-campus visit as the McAndless Distinguished Scholars in the Humanities at Eastern Michigan University with a Meet & Greet in the Atrium of Strong Hall. The general public is invited to meet the artists, learn about their American Mirror Project, and hear a snippet of music!
We are honored to be named the 2023-2024 McAndless Distinguished Professor Chair at Eastern Michigan University. In this 1st of 2 onsite residency weeks, we look forward to collaborating with various areas of university, engaging with their students and faculty in a thoughtful exploration of the American Mirror Project, a deeply personal undertaking which examines perceptions and assumptions about American culture through the lens of music and the performing arts. Read more…
We’re beyond thrilled to make our Philadelphia Chamber Music Society debut with our Curtis and Marlboro friends! Program includes Haydn’s Quartet Op. 76 No. 2 (Fifths), a rocking Formosa Quartet Set, and the Dvořák String Sextet with the glorious Hsin-Yun Huang (viola) and Peter Wiley (cello).
Join the Formosa Quartet at the Blaffer Museum of Art in Houston for a program featuring music by Taiwanese-Houstonian composer Shih-Hui Chen, Joseph Haydn, Caroline Shaw, and Dvořák joined by guest artists Eunghee Cho (cello) and Amber Archibald (viola). The concert will begin with a pre-performance lecture with Nanguan theater artist Mei-Hui Wei.
We are thrilled to collaborate with award-winning composer and longtime FQ friend Shih-Hui Chen, Nanguan pipa and theater artist Mei-Hui Wei, the Asia Society Texas Center, and TECO Houston for this fascinating look into traditional Nanguan music. Audience members are invited to join the artists at a post-concert reception.
We look forward to beginning our appointment as Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Houston and joining our friends, the wonderful faculty and students at Moores School of Music, for an exciting weeklong collaboration of classes, concerts, workshops, outreach events. We will also be visiting with our friends at the Asia Society of Texas, TECO, and the city of Houston!
Come observe the Formosa Quartet work with students in the EMU Choir. This open rehearsal will center around a collaboration featured on “The American Mirror Project: A Reflection of Ypsilanti” concert on Saturday, January 20 at 7:30 PM.
George Frederick McKay was a prolific composer, born a year after Gershwin, whose music evokes folksong, jazz, blues, street music, and Native American influences. We will record 4 of his reflective, playful, and intricate string quartets with Seattle’s GRAMMY award-winning, David Sabee, as producer.
Join the Formosa Quartet at the stunning Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts in Kingston, Ontario for their culminating concert of their residency at the National Youth Orchestra of Canada! Program includes works by Haydn and a rocking 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 — and to the late-night drinking binges with the esteemed faculty. (Are we allowed to say that?)
Join us for an evening of imagination, classicism, and innovation at the Philharmonic Society and artistic director Tommy Phillips. The program includes:
MOZART: String Quartet in D minor, K. 421
A FORMOSA QUARTET SET
SCHUMANN:String Quartet No. 2 in F major, Op. 41, No. 2
Very grateful to join this time-honored series again, live this time, after a virtual appearance necessitated by the pandemic!
Mozart – String Quartet No. 15 in D minor, K. 421
Schumann – String Quartet in F major, Opus 41, No. 2
Concerts at the Athenaeum have been a cultural staple of San Diego for decades, and faces an exciting future in the hands of new directors Alex Greenbaum and Kate Hatmaker. We look forward to being part of their 2022-2023 season and catching up with our many San Diego friends! Click on event for more details.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
String Quartet in D Minor, K.421
A Formosa Quartet Set
(See formosaquartet.com/programs for sample sets.)
—Intermission—
Robert Schumann
String Quartet No. 2 in F Major, op. 41, no. 2
“Parlour Games” by Michael Oesterle (double bass and cello) *San Diego premiere
“Canto” by Ludovico Einaudi (solo cello) *San Diego premiere
“American Mirror Part II” by Derrick Skye (string quartet) *San Diego premiere
“American Roadmap” compilation of folk songs curated by Formosa Quartet *San Diego premiere
The University of Houston’s Moores School of Music presents the Formosa Quartet for the Moores Chamber Music Downtown series. The program includes Shostakovich’s Octet with the esteemed faculty of UH, Schumann’s Quartet No. 2 in F major, and a special Formosa Quartet Set.
In this insightful, thought-provoking, powerful lecture-performance, FQ collaborates with friend and musicologist Andrew Davis for a multi-disciplinary look at how the works of Leslie Martinez and Robert Schumann comment on, clarify, and illuminate each other.
In this visit we’ll roll up our sleeves to investigate topics such as string playing, improvisation, underrepresented composers, advocacy, and social change with the forward-thinking UH students and faculty.
