The New York Times
Vivien Schweitzer
The Pacifica Quartet Interprets Composers' Last Words
Schubert knew he was dying when, in 1828, he wrote his final three piano sonatas. Beethoven was deaf and ill in 1826, the year before he died, when he composed his String Quartet No. 16. But Elliott Carter was still going strong when he finished his String Quartet No. 5 in 1995, at 87. He composed dozens more pieces before he died in 2012, completing his last work just a few months before his death at 103.
Still, even if more a late, late work than a swan song, Mr. Carter’s String Quartet seemed a fitting inclusion on the Pacifica Quartet’s program on Wednesday evening at the 92nd Street Y. Called “Last Words,” it featured the final string quartets written by Beethoven, Carter and Janacek.
The New York Times
Zachary Woolfe
So Nice, They Do It Twice
While this kind of “bis” is primarily a vocal phenomenon when it still pops up, it occasionally makes incursions into instrumental music. In November, the excellent Pacifica Quartet appeared at Alice Tully Hall under the auspices of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.
Receiving warm applause at the end of the concert, the players sat down for an unexpected encore: the second movement, “Menace,” of Shulamit Ran’s “Glitter, Doom, Shards, Memory” (2012-13), which the group had played in its entirety before intermission. I wish that more ensembles would consider this, particularly in concerts featuring contemporary music that would benefit from being worked deeper into listeners’ ears.
Chicago Tribune
Howard Reich
Best Classical Recordings of 2020!
Three of America’s most engaging composers - Shulamit Ran, Jennifer Higdon, and Ellen Taaffe Zwilich - are the “contemporary voices” of this bracing album by the superb Pacifica Quartet. Of key importance: the world premiere recording of Ran’s “Glitter, Doom, Shares, Memory” - String Quartet No. 3, dispatched in unmistakable and apt ferocity.
San Francisco Classical Voice
Richard Ginell
Pacifica Quartet Revisits Music by Living Composers
The Pacifica Quartet has amassed a large discography for Chicago’s Cedille label over the last 20 years — most notably an impressive complete Shostakovich quartet cycle with fellow Soviet composers of the period as discmates. The complete quartets of polar opposites Felix Mendelssohn and Elliott Carter (the latter on Naxos) also figure in their catalogue (they proved their mettle at UCLA in 2003 by daring to play all of the Carters in one exhilarating evening). Now the foursome checks in with a Cedille CD of three contemporary works by three distinguished living composers, all of whom happen to be women.
The Strad
July 2025 | Leah Hollingsworth
Concert review: Pacifica Quartet
I was immediately arrested by the quality of the Pacifica Quartet’s ensemble sound when it made its debut at the Brevard Music Center this month, and its well-matched articulation and bow speeds made for an effective performance of Barber’s B minor String Quartet.
The Strad
September 2024 | Bruce Hodges
Concert review: Pacifica Quartet masterclass and concert
To a packed house with extra seats on stage, the Pacifica Quartet began the evening at the Bowdoin International Music Festival with Shostakovich’s Second String Quartet. This arresting score was relatively fresh in my memory, after hearing the Jerusalem Quartet traverse its mysteries. While acknowledging that comparisons are odious, it’s worth noting that the Jerusalem foursome positioned the work at the end of the evening, emphasising its quieter, more enigmatic components. On the other hand, the Pacifica exposed Shostakovich’s knottier corners and created a worthy predecessor to the Beethoven that followed after the interval.
The Strad
Austin Hartman
‘American Stories’ Chronicled: A Contemporary Recording for a Contemporary Time
’My life is one billion percent better today than I could ever have dreamed,’ said composer Ben Shirley, as he recounted for our quartet on a pandemic-era Zoom call detailing how music and marathon training helped inspire his dramatic story of recovery over addiction and homelessness while living in Los Angeles’s notorious Skid Row. His inspirational journey, told in conjunction with three powerful stories from the American experience, creates the musical narrative for our most recent recording project, American Stories, which we recorded in collaboration with our dear friend and venerable colleague, clarinettist Anthony McGill.
Featuring clarinet quintets composed in the last decade by Richard Danielpour, James Lee III, Ben Shirley, and Valerie Coleman, this album weaves together a unique narrative exploring consequential themes of our time, including racially motivated hate crimes, reclassifications of diverse ethnicities, celebrations of recovery and natural beauty, and highlights from the life and successes of American icon Muhammad Ali. We share these stories with the intent of ’empathising with each other, being present in our shared humanity… and embracing the beauty that lies in the diversity of sound and story’ (Anthony McGill, CD liner notes).
Textura
August 2024
American Voices, Pacifica Quartet's fourteenth recording for Cedille Records, upholds the high standard of its 2021 Grammy Award-winning Contemporary Voices. With respect to set-list, violinists Simin Ganatra and Austin Hartman, violist Mark Holloway, and cellist Brandon Vamos have made a wise choice in augmenting works by Antonín Dvorák, Florence Price, and Louis Gruenberg with a thought-provoking new one by James Lee III. Melody factors heavily when the string quartets integrate elements of American folk music and spirituals into their frameworks, the result a recording of strong and immediate appeal. Even Lee III's Pitch In, scored for quartet and children's choir, includes an earnestly intoned theme, “People are hungry, yet people continue to waste food,” that stays with you long after the album ends.
Cedille Records Artist Spotlight
August 1, 2024
Artist Spotlight: Pacifica Quartet’s Austin Hartman
We are thrilled to release American Voices this month. This album was a true labor of love allowing us to capture Dvořák’a beloved “American Quartet,” a work that we have all enjoyed presenting for audiences throughout our career. In addition to the Dvořák, this project also gave us an exciting opportunity to share with our listeners the moving text from Sylvia Dianne Beverly’s poem Pitch In as presented in a new work for string quartet and children’s choir composed by our friend and colleague James Lee III. Recorded in collaboration with the talented young artists with the Chicago based children’s choir Uniting Voices, we were struck by the beautiful fusion of music and poetry that challenges all of us to consider what we can do to “pitch in” and help address food insecurity while supporting those in need. We are excited to share that, working in conjunction with Cedille, a percentage from the proceeds of each album sold will be donated to a local charity dedicated to addressing poverty and homelessness in Chicago. With the release of this album, we invite all of you to grab a copy, “pitch in,” and enjoy American Voices, the second installment from our three-disc American Collection recording project that will include an exciting part three offering coming soon. Enjoy!
BBC Music Magazine
Michael Jameson
American Voices Review
This appetizing miscellany of Americana from the Pacifica Quartet opens with an invigorating account of Dvořák’s perennial F Major string quartet. Affectionately and adroitly played, theirs is a very impressive performance indeed, with buoyantly-spring rhythms underscoring the folkish elements of this much over-subscribed work to the degree that virtually every bar sounds freshly minted.
Berkshire Eagle
Jeremy Yudkin
Music Review: Pacifica Quartet & Karen Slack
On Sunday evening at Tanglewood, while over 15,000 people were enjoying the Americana-folk Grammy-winning combo of Led Zeppelin veteran Robert Plant and bluegrass musician Alison Krauss, with guest singer-songwriter JD McPherson in the Koussevitzky Music Shed, just a short walk away a much smaller group of classical chamber-music lovers was reveling in the superb music making of the Pacifica Quartet at the delightful small concert hall, modestly named “Studio E,” at the Linde Center for Music and Learning.
Classical Candor
Kari Nehring
Recent Releases No. 44 (CD Reviews)
Anthony McGill is the principal clarinet for the New York Philharmonic and he plays with a strong, confident tone that is a wonder to behold. He is joined on this release by the multiple Grammy Award-winning Pacifica Quartet to play music by contemporary American composers. McGill describes it as a project driven by the desire to “expand the capacity for art and music to change the world,” further observing that “as an artist you don’t often get to put together a collection of living composers that you love. I am in awe of every piece on this album and how each piece communicates with the other.”
The Whole Note (Toronto)
Max Christie
American Stories - Anthony McGill; Pacifica Quartet (CD Review)
“This is a great recording. What is not to like here? The Pacifica quartet are excellent, Anthony McGill turns the clarinet into a beautiful distinct voice.”
Strings Magazine
David Templeton
The Pacifica Quartet’s ‘American Stories’ with Clarinetist Anthony McGill Explores Scenes from the American Experience
Over the course of its 28 years, the Pacifica Quartet has tackled many musical challenges, testing its already impressive core skill sets in countless ways. But until now, with the release of the extraordinary American Stories—a breathtaking collaboration with clarinetist Anthony McGill—the two-time Grammy-winning ensemble has never been asked to sound like Muhammad Ali pummeling an opponent in the boxing ring.
A striking example of the ensemble’s mastery of interpretation and the players’ clear eagerness to try new things, American Stories simultaneously stretches the Pacifica Quartet as performers while inviting listeners to adjust their own expectations of what music is and can do. Featuring compositions by Richard Danielpour, James Lee III, Benjamin J. Shirley, and Valerie Coleman, the pieces have in common a stunning command of narrative.
Cleveland Classical Review
Timothy Robinson
Tuesday Musical: Anthony McGill with the Pacifica Quartet
“We are so happy to be performing in front of a live audience again. Just saying the words gives me shivers.” These were the words of Mark Holloway, violist in the Pacifica Quartet, at their splendid performance with clarinetist Anthony McGill, presented by Tuesday Musical on May 4 at E.J. Thomas Hall.
Classical Candor
John Puccio
Souvenirs of Spain and Italy (CD review)
Sharon Isbin is accompanied on the album Souvenirs of Spain and Italy by the Pacifica Quartet: Simin Ganatra, violin; Austin Hartman, violin; Mark Holloway, viola; and Brandon Vamos, cello. They perform four pieces by Spanish and Italian composers, giving us a little taste of both countries. To say that the performances are polished and sparkling would be an understatement.
Contemporary Voices
Colin Clarke
The disc exemplifies many aspects of how contemporary music should be presented so it can shine: superb recording standards (achieved by producer James Ginsburg and engineer Bill Maylone), expert annotation, and performances of a standard up there with the likes of the Arditti Quartet. This showcase of three Pultizer-winning composers is utterly remarkable.
Pacifica Quartet serves up a bracing disc of women composers
Lawrence Budmen
Otis Murphy, a faculty member at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, conquers every virtuosic challenge, playing with clarity, tonal glow and idiomatic zest. The Pacifica players bring the same finely blended ensemble, intensity of expression and sense of adventure to Zwilich’s score and the other works on the recording that they have displayed in Beethoven and Shostakovich quartets, live and on disc.
5 Minutes That Will Make You Love Mozart
Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim
The clarinet held a special place in Mozart’s heart. Inspired by Anton Stadler, an instrument maker and brilliant player, he wrote music for the instrument that was unprecedented in both its lyricism and jubilant virtuosity. One of these groundbreaking works is the quintet for clarinet and strings, which contains a slow movement of weightless, bittersweet perfection.
In the beginning, the clarinet unspools long, placid lines over an undulating haze of strings, setting a mood of pastoral peace. Then a solo violin breaks free and engages the clarinet in a pas-de-deux full of playful runs and graceful ornaments. When the violin melts back into the background, the clarinet returns to its opening theme, the atmosphere now subtly changed and clouded with melancholy.
Infodad.com
Ran’s third quartet (2012-13) was written for the Pacifica String Quartet, and Higdon’s Voices (1993) is dedicated to the group, so the quality of the performances here is scarcely a surprise – and the handling of Zwilich’s “quartet-plus” from 2007, in which the strings are joined by alto saxophone, is also exemplary.
Zwilich’s quintet . . . is the most interesting work on this disc, not only for its inclusion of the alto saxophone but also for the evenness with which Otis Murphy’s playing integrates with and is balanced by that of the string quartet – both as a whole and in terms of the individual instruments
Only Strings: New Music and Chamber Music
Paul Baker
The Quartet in Residence at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, Pacifica are stunningly good musicians and this package should delight anyone knowledgeable about, or curious about, new music.
The Sunday Times
Paul Driver
The Pacifica Quartet presents three vivid works written for them. Ran's Glitter, Doom, Shards, Memory (her third string quartet) is an acutely felt memorial to the painter Felix Nussbaum, who died in Auschwitz. Jennifer Higdon's Voices begins with a relentless "Blitz" of figuration, but works steadily for serenity across a three-movement span. Otis Murphy joins them for Ellen Taaffe Zwilich's attractive Quintet for Alto Saxophone and String Quartet, and blends in uncannily well.
Classical Music Sentinel
Jean-Yves Duperron
…what all three works demonstrate very well, is how musically flexible and versatile the members of the Pacifica Quartet can be. From the sorrowful opening page of the Ran to the almost funky ending of the Zwilich, they first and foremost capture and project each individual composer's intent and character, however divergent they may be.
Sarasota Herald-Tribute
Gayle Williams
Pacifica Quartet astounds in Music Festival program
Drawing this concert to an electrifying end, the Pacifica Quartet took off into a presto of remarkable speed drawing an audible gasp from this listener at their audacity and astonishing skill.
Overheard from one audience member as the crowd leapt to their feet, “Now that’s why we are here!”
The Sydney Morning Herald
Clive O'Connell
Splendid technical accomplishment of Shostakovich string quartet
This ensemble from Indiana has performed previously at the Musica Viva Sydney Festival, but not here. Now on a national tour, the visitors presented the second of two programs on Saturday.
They have recorded all 15 of Shostakovich's string quartets, so programming No. 3 in F was a no-brainer. Also, the players have given complete Beethoven quartet cycles from New York to Tokyo; consequently, their reading of the last in the series found them on equally familiar turf.
Nevertheless, the program's capping-stone came in the Shostakovich: a splendid technical accomplishment without apparent flaw across all five movements, the last pages in particular a moving instance of the Pacifica's sympathy and insight.
Chicago Classical Review
Lawrence A. Johnson
Pacifica Quartet's dark, thoughtful program feels timely at the Logan Center
If the subzero temperature outside the Logan Center for the Arts Sunday afternoon wasn’t brutal enough, Shostakovich’s music made things even more chilling.
The Pacifica Quartet has made Shostakovich one of their specialities since their memorable complete survey of his quartets at Ganz Hall five years ago. Sunday’s performance of the Quartet No. 13 showed that their mastery in this repertoire has only deepened, and elegiac moments seemed to have an extra depth of feeling.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Robert Croan
Pacifica Quartet evokes visceral response to works by Ravel, Ligeti, and Mozart
Is Ravel’s String Quartet everyone’s favorite piece of chamber music? Probably not, but in any poll it would certainly appear high on the list.
An extraordinary rendition of this popular work Monday evening capped a splendid program by the Pacifica Quartet on Chamber Music Pittsburgh’s series in Carnegie Music Hall.
The playing by Pacifica Quartet -- violinists Simin Ganatra and Sibbi Bernhardsson, violist Masumi Per Rostad and cellist Brandon Vamos -- was characterized by immaculate precision, on-the-mark intonation, incisive rhythms and a sense of give-and-take among the participants that made every piece seem like a conversation among the protagonists.
NPR Tiny Desk Concert
Tom Huizenga
Tiny Desk: Pacifica Quartet
With this Tiny Desk Concert by the Grammy-winning Pacifica Quartet, we have the opportunity to explore the world of a single composer. With the arguable exception of Béla Bartók's six string quartets, it's generally accepted that the 15 by Dmitri Shostakovich are the strongest body of quartets since Beethoven.
There's no way around it — the Shostakovich quartets are intense, like page-turning thrillers, as they pull you into his world. They are dark and introspective, witty and sarcastic, and stained with the Soviet-era violence and hardship the composer lived through. He died in 1975.