Recognized for its virtuosity, exuberant performance style, and often daring repertory choices, the Pacifica Quartet has carved out a compelling musical path. Recent career highlights include complete Beethoven quartet cycles in Chicago, New York City, California, and Wisconsin; performances in Europe and Japan; performance of Elliott Carter’s complete quartets at Lincoln Center in celebration of the composer’s 100th birthday; and the release of Elliott Carter: String Quartets Nos. 1 and 5 on the Naxos label, the first CD in a two-disc set of Carter’s complete quartets. The Pacifica’s recent release and earlier recordings of Mendelssohn’s complete quartets, music between the world wars, and Dvorak have been praised by critics in the U.S. and abroad.

In May 2006, the Pacifica Quartet became only the second chamber music ensemble to be awarded a prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant.  Winner of three of chamber music’s most important international awards—Grand Prize at the 1996 Coleman Chamber Music Competition, top prize at the 1997 Concert Artists Guild Competition, and the 1998 Naumburg Chamber Music Award—the Quartet was subsequently honored in 2002 with Chamber Music America’s highly esteemed Cleveland Quartet Award and appointment to The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s CMS Two program for gifted young musicians.  An ardent advocate of contemporary music, the Pacifica has commissioned and premiered as many as eight new works a year, and has performed Elliott Carter’s five quartets on prestigious stages in the U.S. and Europe. 

The members of the Pacifica Quartet live in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, where they were appointed to the faculty of the University of Illinois in 2004 and serve as Faculty Quartet in Residence. They are also resident performing artists at the University of Chicago and the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

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