The Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival’s 24th season concludes on a high note with the annual Christopher Rex String Seminar—a beloved tradition celebrating the next generation of chamber musicians.
Each year, we welcome two exceptional young string quartets as our Beth Newdome Fellows, offering them an immersive week of coachings, community outreach, and public performances alongside a world-class professional ensemble.
This season, we are proud to host the Candide Quartet (The Juilliard School) and Suzie’s Quartet (Vanderbilt University), who will be mentored by the internationally acclaimed American String Quartet.
American String Quartet
Internationally recognized as one of the world’s finest quartets, the American String Quartet has spent decades honing the luxurious sound for which it is famous. The Quartet celebrated its 45th anniversary in 2019, and, in its years of touring, has performed in all fifty states and has appeared in the most important concert halls worldwide. The group’s presentations of the complete quartets of Beethoven, Schubert, Schoenberg, Bartók, and Mozart have won widespread critical acclaim, and their MusicMasters Complete Mozart String Quartets, performed on a matched quartet set of instruments by Stradivarius, are widely considered to have set the standard for this repertoire.
Recent seasons featured performances of the Quartet’s major project together with the National Book Award-winning author Phil Klay and the poet Tom Sleigh, which offers a groundbreaking program combining music and readings that examines the effects of war. The Quartet also collaborated with the renowned author Salman Rushdie in a work for narrator and quartet by the film composer Paul Cantelon built around Rushdie’s novel The Enchantress of Florence. These tremendously imaginative collaborations cement the American String Quartet’s reputation as one of the most adventurous and fearless string quartets performing today, as comfortable with the groundbreaking as with the traditional.
The Quartet’s diverse activities have also included numerous international radio and television broadcasts, including a recent recording for the BBC; tours of Asia; and performances with the New York City Ballet, the Montreal Symphony, and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Recent highlights include performances of an all-sextet program with Roberto and Andrès Díaz, many tours of South America, and performances of the complete Beethoven cycle of string quartets at the Cervantes Festival in Mexico and the Tel Aviv Museum in Israel.
The American’s additional extensive discography can be heard on the Albany, CRI, MusicMasters, Musical Heritage Society, Nonesuch, and RCA labels. Most recently the group released “Schubert’s Echo,” which pairs Schubert’s monumental last quartet with works bearing its influence by Second Viennese masters Alban Berg and Anton Webern. This repertoire posits that the creative line from the First to the Second Viennese Schools is continuous – and evident when these works are heard in the context of each other.
As champions of new music, the American has given numerous premieres, including George Tsontakis’s Quartet No. 7.5, “Maverick,” Richard Danielpour’s Quartet No. 4, and Curt Cacioppo’s a distant voice calling. The premiere of Robert Sirota’s American Pilgrimage was performed around the U.S. in the cities the work celebrates. The Quartet premiered Tobias Picker’s String Quartet No. 2 in New York City in celebration of the 90th anniversary of the Manhattan School of Music.
Formed when its original members were students at The Juilliard School, the American String Quartet’s career began with the group winning both the Coleman Competition and the Naumburg Award in the same year. Resident quartet at the Aspen Music Festival since 1974 and at the Manhattan School of Music in New York since 1984, the American has also served as resident quartet at the Taos School of Music, the Peabody Conservatory, and the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.
Candide Quartet
Formed in 2023, the Candide Quartet consists of violinists Chili Ekman and Henry Rogers, cellist Vanny Hu and violist Pearl de la Motte.
Now finishing their second year as an ensemble, the Candide Quartet is even more committed to learning the chamber music repertoire and gaining performing experience. Having a shared love for Voltaire’s Candide and its philosophies, the group embodies the sentiments of appreciation for the camaraderie and dedication that we feel are inherent in the story and string quartet playing. Our goal is to cultivate our music and share the fruits of our commitment with all of our audiences.
This past year, the Candide Quartet was the Fellowship String Quartet in Residence at Music in the Vineyards in Napa, as well as Madeline Island Chamber Music in Wisconsin. They also participated and gave concerts in two quartet seminars, the Robert Mann String Quartet Seminar and the Calidore Quartet Seminar at the University of Delaware. Last September, the quartet worked with Caroline Shaw to give the Juilliard premiere of her work Plan and Elevation at Juilliard’s inaugural Fall Festival. They recently collaborated with Shaw again for the first Juilliard at Zankel Hall concert, where they performed Shaw’s Other Song alongside the composer.
Suzies Quartet
The Suzie’s Quartet was formed at Vanderbilt University Blair School of Music in 2024. The group is made up of 4 freshman: Willa Brasch and Claire Lee (violins), John-Paul Younes (viola), and Irene Choung (cello). The group is coached by Professor David Samuel. The Suzie’s Quartet aims to explore the many masterworks of string quartet repertoire throughout their undergraduate careers.
Willa Brasch is from Farmington, Connecticut and studies under Professor Carolyn Huebl. She is studying in pursuit of a Bachelor’s degree in violin performance and a minor in Spanish as a Blair Community Scholar. Willa has been playing violin for 16 years and has long had a passion for chamber music since elementary school, as well as putting on 3 full-length chamber recitals with her groups over the years. She has attended the Green Mountain Chamber Festival for 5 summers as well as Hilton Head Chamber Music Festival.
Claire Lee is a violinist from Boston, MA, studying under Carolyn Huebl in pursuit of a Bachelor’s degree in violin performance. As an enthusiastic chamber musician, her previous groups have played for numerous established musicians, including Pekka Kuusisto, Jon Nakamatsu, and Benjamin Zander. Her trio, Trio Résonne, has performed in the iconic Hatch Memorial Shell in Boston and won 1st place in the International Chamber Music Foundation of New England competition.
John-Paul Younes is a violist from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida studying under Professor Eric Wong. He has been playing viola as well as violin for 10 years and is majoring in both viola performance and Chemistry looking to be on the premed track. He participated in the Florida All-State festival for 3 years, and enjoys sharing music with his community, through playing in church and local events, with an interest in Latin jazz.
Cellist Irene Choung is from Orange County Southern California, and is studying with Professor Felix Wang, majoring in both cello performance and biology on the pre-nursing track. An avid chamber and orchestral musician, Irene has been chosen to be in the Ed and Mari Edelman Chamber Music Institute Honors Chamber Music Scholarship Program at the Colburn School since 2020-2024, and has competed at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition for the season of 2022 and 2024.