BISQC Concert 13: Beethoven/Schubert + 20th Century

Saskia Niehl (she/her) - violin, Germany
Jeffrey Armstrong (he/him) - violin, South Africa
Grae Leehan (she/her) - viola, New Zealand
Nadja Reich (she/her) - cello, Germany

United by their spontaneous and joyful approach to music-making, the four members of the Nerida Quartet captivate their audiences with an irresistible energy and sincere interpretations.

A brief initial encounter in chamber music as academists of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen sparked a long-term musical relationship. Their close connection was nurtured during this time by working with a number of great colleagues, conductors and soloists.

The ensemble's name, inspired by the Nereids of Greek mythology, draws reference to water as a powerful yet flexible element that can constantly take on new forms.

The Nerida Quartet has been playing in its current form since 2024, achieving remarkable success in a short time. Most recently, the ensemble was awarded third prize at the Irene Steels-Wilsing Quartet Competition. In January 2024, the ensemble was awarded the "Prize of the Federal President" for the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Hochschulwettbewerb 2024.

Invitations to international music festivals such as the Festival Musikdorf Ernen, Gent Festival van Vlaanderen and the Heidelberger Frühling regularly take the quartet to stages all over Europe.

The quartet is based in Bremen and is currently enrolled at the HMTM Hannover with Prof. Oliver Wille. It has also received tuition from renowned teachers such as Martin Funda, Patrick Jüdt, members of the Artemis Quartet and Cuarteto Casals, Hatto Beyerle and Johannes Meissl through the renowned European Chamber Music Academy.

The quartet has been part of the EU-funded MERITA programme since 2023.

Sarah Ying Ma (she/they) - violin, USA
Max Ball (he/they) - violin, USA
Jasper de Boor (they/them) - viola, USA
Drew Dansby (he/him) - cello, USA

The Poiesis Quartet is the 2023 Grnd Prize winner of the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and winner of the 2024 Concert Artists Guild Competition. Within eight months of their founding at Oberlin Conservatory, they also received Fischoff's Lift Every Voice Prize as well as Gold Medal and BIPOC Prize at the 2023 St. Paul String Quartet Competition. Poiesis has toured internationally, including in Uruguay in 2023, as well as Italy in 2024 for a residency at the Emilia Romagna Festival. As an ensemble passionate about new music, the recent release of their debut album as we are on the Bright Shiny Things label features world premiere recordings of works by Clint Needham and Richard Stout alongside mezzo-soprano Nancy Maultsby. In the 2024-25 season, they also served as ensemble-in-residence with concertnova, a collective presenting multi-sensorial and multi-disciplinary concert experiences, where they collaborated with composer Sarah Hannies, violinist Benjamin Beilman, and visual artist XUAN. The Poiesis Quartet is the current Graduate Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music studying with the Ariel Quartet. As graduates of Oberlin Conservatory, they were previously mentored by Sibbi Bernhardsson of the Pacifica Quartet and the Verona Quartet. 

The name Poiesis is derived from the ancient Greek word ποιεῖν, which means "to make". Poiesis seeks to program music of all styles and genres with an emphasis on platforming works by emerging and underrepresented composers, creating unique moments of synchronicity and verve in each performance. 

Francis Yiu-Ting Chik (he/him) - violin, Hong Kong
Hiu-Sing Fan (he/him) - violin, Hong Kong
Caleb Wong (he/him) - viola, Hong Kong
Yan-Ho Cheng (he/him) - cello, Hong Kong

Formed at the Indiana University in 2015, Cong Quartet recently served the 2023 artistic residency of Musique à Flaine and was the Ensemble-in-Residence at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) from 2019-22. The quartet is part of the Nederlandse Strijkkwartet Academie (NSKA), a musical partner of Domaine de La Garde in France, and a member of Le Dimore del Quartetto in Italy.

Drawing from the mentorship of the Pacifica Quartet at Jacobs School of Music, Ivan Chan at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, the Quatuor Danel and Quatuor Ysaÿe in Europe, Cong Quartet's journey was fueled by top prize wins at the likes of 2024 International Music Competition Triomphe de l'Art in Brussels, 2022 Virtuoso & Belcanto's Chamber Music Competition in Italy, and several other international chamber music competitions. The quartet has participated in many chamber music festivals & institutes, such as the Accademia Internazionale di Musica di Cagliari, Juilliard String Quartet Seminar, Robert Mann String Quartet Institute, Heifetz International Music Institute, Encore Chamber Music, the Harpa International Music Academy, Madeline Island Chamber Music, Music in PyeongChang, the Ozawa International  Chamber Music Academy, as well as the European Chamber Music Academy (ECMA) and Musethica. They have performed with world-renowned artists such as the Borromeo Quartet, Quatuor Danel, Yovan Markovitch, Enrico Pace & Yuri Bashmet among many others.

Cong Quartet believes that the humanistic experience of chamber music is a treasure to the community and shares the philosophy of promoting chamber repertoire from their cultural background.