Recognized for its virtuosity, exuberant performance style, and often daring repertory choices, the Pacifica Quartet has carved out a compelling musical path. Formed in 1994, the ensemble swept top prizes in several leading international competitions including the Concert Artists Guild Competition and the Naumburg Chamber Music Competition. Most recent honors include the 2009 Grammy Award for "Best Chamber Music Performance" for its recording of Elliott Carter's String Quartets Nos. 1&5 and being named 2009 Ensemble of the Year by Musical America. The Pacifica also won the 2003 Cleveland Quartet Award, and in 2006 it was awarded a prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, only the second chamber music ensemble ever to be selected.

The Pacifica Quartet tours extensively throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, and Australia, performing in the world's major concert halls in cities such as Paris, London, Amsterdam, Vienna, and Tokyo. Each season the ensemble can be heard on many of the nation's prominent classical radio broadcasts, including Chicago's WFMT, Boston's WGBH, American Public Media's Performance Today, and Minnesota Public Radio's St. Paul Sunday.

Other recent recordings include Declarations: Music Between the Wars showcasing music composed during the turbulent decades between World Wars I and II and the complete string quartets of Felix Mendelssohn. The Quartet’s CDs have attracted effusive praise from critics in the U.S. and abroad, including a featured appearance on the cover of Gramophone magazine.

Over the course of the 2008 -2009 season, in celebration of Felix Mendelssohn’s 200th birthday, the Pacifica Quartet will present the cycle of his complete string quartets in New York City during a series of lunch time concerts at Columbia University that will include performances along with commentary by members of the Quartet. This series is an encore to 2007-2008’s successful and widely publicized Beethoven Cycle at Columbia. The Quartet will also perform the complete Mendelssohn cycle in Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Hall. Continuing its sell-out season performing Beethoven cycles around the world, the Pacifica will participate in cycles at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art as well as in Portland, OR, and Seattle.

Unique in the chamber music world, the Pacifica Quartet will also present cycles of Elliott Carter’s groundbreaking quartets in San Francisco, at London’s Wigmore Hall, and at Lisbon’s Gulbenkian Foundation. These arduous concerts, which the Pacifica pioneered and have performed worlwide, will complement release of the second Naxos disc of the Carter quartets.  Previous Carter cycles elicited glowing reviews: The New York Times wrote of the “astounding performances” and the Chicago Tribune praised the Quartet’s “astonishing talent, energy and dedication.” 

The Pacifica’s 2008-2009 season will also feature two extensive European tours, including stops in Vienna, Stuttgart, and Paris, as well as participation in the Perth, Australia international Arts Festival. North American audiences will be treated to performances of Ellen Taaffe Zwilich’s saxophone quintet, commissioned for the Quartet , with concerts in Detroit, Chicago, Urbana, and Calgary, and in summer 2009 Music @ Menlo will present the Quartet.

The members of the Pacifica Quartet live in Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, where they were appointed to the faculty of the University of Illinois in 2004 and serve as Faculty Quartet in Residence. The Quartet members also serve as resident performing artists at the University of Chicago and the Longy School of Music in Boston.  Reflecting its dedication to musicians and music lovers of the next generation, the Pacifica Quartet was instrumental in creating the Music Integration Project, an innovative program that provides musical performances and teacher training to inner-city elementary schools.  In addition, the Quartet regularly teaches and performs at summer festivals, including Maverick Concerts, Caramoor International Music Festival, Fontana Chamber Arts, Music in the Vineyards, Interlochen Arts Camp, and the Madeline Island Music Festival, and it is also frequently invited for visiting residencies at universities and schools nationwide.

The members of the Pacifica Quartet share a unique history of personal and musical friendship. First violinist Simin Ganatra, born and raised in southern California, initially performed with cellist Brandon Vamos and violinist Sibbi Bernhardsson while they were all teenagers. Sibbi later introduced violist Masumi Per Rostad to the group. Originating on the West Coast, where it played its earliest concerts together, the Quartet takes its name from the awe-inspiring Pacific Ocean. Throughout their journey as a string quartet, its members continually strive to be Distinct as the billows/yet one as the sea. (James Montgomery)

For more information about the Pacifica Quartet, please visit:
www.pacificaquartet.com