Recognized for its virtuosity, exuberant performance style, and often daring repertory choices, the Pacifica Quartet has carved out a compelling musical path. Since the group first came together in 1994, the ensemble has swept top prizes in several leading international competitions from the Cleveland Quartet Award to the Naumburg. This past spring the Pacifica was awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant – only the second chamber music ensemble ever to be selected.

The Pacifica Quartet tours extensively throughout the United States, Europe and the Far East. Each season, the ensemble can be heard on many of the nation’s most prominent radio broadcasts, including Chicago’s WFMT, National Public Radio’s Performance Today, and Minnesota Public Radio’s St. Paul Sunday.

Prolific in the recording studio, the Pacifica Quartet has just released a new CD this fall, showcasing music composed during the turbulent decades between World Wars I and II.

On Declarations: Music Between the Wars, the ensemble offers string quartets by three enterprising, public-spirited humanists of first half of the 20th century: Czechoslovakia’s Leoš Janácek, America’s Ruth Crawford Seeger, and Germany’s Paul Hindemith. The Pacifica’s recent recordings of the Complete String Quartets of Felix Mendelssohn have also attracted effusive praise from critics in the US and abroad. On the heels of the release, the ensemble was featured on the cover of Gramophone magazine. Earlier Cedille recordings include Dvorak chamber works (including the Viola Quintet with Michael Tree), and the complete quartets of Easley Blackwood.

The Pacifica Quartet celebrated its 10th anniversary in the 2004-2005 season with great fanfare. The ensemble marked the occasion with its first tour of Japan, its first appearance at Wigmore Hall in London, a performance of all five Elliott Carter quartets for San Francisco Performances, a concert at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, the release of the complete Mendelssohn string quartets, and more than 60 concerts across the country.