Callisto Quartet

Praised for their “lush intensity and bravado” and the “cohesion and intonation one might expect from an ensemble twice their age” (Third Coast Review), the American-Canadian Callisto Quartet brings together four musicians who share a passion for bringing chamber music to audiences around the world. Since their inception at the Cleveland Institute of Music in 2016, Callisto has garnered top prizes in nearly every major international chamber music competition and has been hailed by audiences across the globe. Grand Prize winners of the 2018 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and Second Prize Winners of the 2019 Banff International String Quartet Competition, the Callisto Quartet has also taken home prizes from the Bordeaux, Melbourne, and Wigmore Hall competitions. Currently the Fellowship Quartet in Residence at Yale University and Associate Artists in Residence at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel, Callisto has previously held residencies at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music and the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía in Madrid, Spain. From 2020-2022 Callisto was the Ernst Stiefel Quartet in Residence at Caramoor Center for Music and Arts, where they were the first quartet to perform all six string quartets of Bartòk at Caramoor.

Richard Lavenda’s music has been performed around the world by, among many others, the Houston Symphony Orchestra, Musica Nova/Tel Aviv, the Slovak Radio Orchestra, the Chiara, Diotima, Enso, T’Ang, and Sun String Quartets, ZAWA!, Project Trio, the Concordia Trio, and the New Israeli Vocal Ensemble. His catalog of more than sixty works ranges from music for solo flute to an opera, and includes numerous pieces for orchestra and for a wide diversity of chamber ensembles. He has been a guest composer on many campuses and concert series around the United States, at festivals and concerts in Germany, the Czech Republic, Ukraine, Finland, Slovenia, Australia, Israel, and South Korea, and on programs at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center. He has received awards and commissions from such organizations as the National Opera Association, the Houston Arts Alliance, the Vaughn Family Foundation, the Miazawa Flute Company, and Da Camera of Houston.