The award-winning Viano Quartet joins Festival favorite and GRAMMY-Award winning cellist Zuill Bailey for a night of chamber music synergy.
Program to include:
Schubert: String Quintet in C major
Praised for their “virtuosity, visceral expression, and rare unity of intention” (Boston Globe), the Viano Quartet are among the most sought-after young ensembles today and recipients of the 2025 Avery Fisher Career Grant. Since winning First Prize at the 13th Banff International String Quartet Competition, they have performed in major cities including New York, London, Berlin, Paris, Hong Kong, Beijing, Toronto, and Los Angeles. They are currently members of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Bowers Program (2024–2027).
Highlights of their 2024–25 season include their Alice Tully Hall debut, opening CMS’s season, and their David Geffen Hall debut with Sir Stephen Hough for the world premiere of his new piano quintet. Other appearances include Wolf Trap, Northwestern University, MoCA Westport, and chamber music series in Dallas, Salt Lake City, and Carmel. In Canada, they will perform in Toronto, Kingston, and Vancouver, collaborating with guitarist Miloš Karadaglić. As Music in the Morning’s inaugural June Goldsmith Quartet-in-Residence, they will return to Vancouver in March for performances and community engagement.
Committed to education, the Viano Quartet has taught at Music@Menlo, SUNY Buffalo, the Colburn Academy, and Duke University, among others. This season includes an extended residency at the University of Victoria. Previous residencies include the Curtis Institute, Colburn Conservatory, and SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts.
Their collaborators include Emanuel Ax, Inon Barnatan, James Ehnes, Marc-André Hamelin, Bridget Kibbey, and Elisso Virsaladze. Their debut album, Portraits (Curtis Label), features works by Schubert, Price, Tchaikovsky, and Ginastera.
Before their Banff win, the quartet earned top prizes at the Wigmore Hall, Osaka, Fischoff, ENKOR, and Yellow Springs competitions. They studied under members of the Dover, Guarneri, and Tokyo Quartets.
The name “Viano” symbolizes the unity of the four string instruments, playing together like one instrument—like a piano.
Zuill Bailey, widely considered one of the premiere cellists in the world, is a Grammy Award winning, internationally renowned soloist, recitalist, Artistic Director and teacher. His rare combination of celebrated artistry, technical wizardry and engaging personality has made him one of the most sought after and active cellists today.
Mr. Bailey has been featured with symphony orchestras and music festivals worldwide. He won the Best Solo Performance Grammy Award in 2017, for his recording of Michael Daugherty’s “Tales of Hemingway,” with the Nashville Symphony led by Giancarlo Guerrero. His extensive discography includes his newest release – the world premier recording of Ellen Taaffe Zwilich’s Cello Concerto with the Santa Rosa Symphony. In 2021 he released his second recording of the Bach Cello Suites for PS Audio’s Octave Records label, recorded and mixed in stereo and multichannel sound.
He appeared in a recurring role on the HBO series “Oz,” and has been heard on NPR’s “Morning Edition,” “Tiny Desk Concert,” “Performance Today,” “Saint Paul Sunday,” BBC’s “In Tune,” XM Radio’s “Live from Studio II,” Sirius Satellite Radio’s “Virtuoso Voices,” and his latest disc of Bach Suites was the disc of the week on Sirius’ Symphony Hall.
Mr. Bailey received his Bachelor’s Degree from the Peabody Conservatory where he was named the 2014 Johns Hopkins University Distinguished Alumni, and received a Master’s Degree from the Juilliard School. He performs on the “rosette” 1693 Matteo Gofriller Cello formerly owned by Mischa Schneider of the Budapest String Quartet.
He is the Artistic Director of El Paso Pro-Musica (Texas), the Sitka Summer Music Festival/Series and Cello Seminar, (Alaska), Juneau Jazz and Classics, (Alaska), the Northwest Bach Festival (Washington), Classical Inside Out Series- Mesa Arts Center (Arizona) and is Director of the Center for Arts Entrepreneurship and Professor of Cello at the University of Texas at El Paso.