Viano String Quartet
About
Presented by Paramount Center for the Arts
Praised for their “huge range of dynamics, massive sound and spontaneity” (American Record Guide), the Viano String Quartet are First Prize winners of the 2019 Banff International String Quartet Competition. Formed in 2015 at the Colburn Conservatory of Music in Los Angeles, where they were Ensemble-in-Residence through the 2020-21 season, the quartet has performed in venues such as Wigmore Hall, Place Flagey, Konzerthaus Berlin, and Segerstrom Center for the Arts. The quartet is in residence at the Curtis Institute of Music as well as Meadows School of Music at the Southern Methodist University through the 2022-23 season.
Summer of 2021 brought debuts at Bravo! Vail and Rockport Music Festival, a return visit to Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival followed by extensive touring throughout Europe, Canada and the United States. Since the Covid-19 pandemic started, the Viano String Quartet actively presented virtual and socially distanced live concerts for various organizations, including Friends of Chamber Music of Troy, Salt Lake Chamber Music Society, Dallas Chamber Music Society, Schneider Series at the New School, and the Banff International String Quartet Festival.
They have collaborated with world-class musicians such as pianists Emanuel Ax, Elisso Virsaladze, Inon Barnatan and Marc-Andre Hamelin, violists Paul Coletti and Paul Neubauer, violinist Noah Bendix-Balgley, and vocalist Hila Plitmann.
The quartet achieved incredible success in their formative years, with an unbroken streak of top prizes at Osaka, Fischoff, Wigmore Hall, Yellow Springs and ENKOR chamber music competitions.
The name “Viano” was created to describe the four individual instruments in a string quartet interacting as one. Each of the four instruments begins with the letter “v”, and like a piano, all four string instruments together play both harmony and melody, creating a unified instrument called the “Viano”.
Viano String Quartet:
Lucy Wang, violin
Hao Zhou, violin
Aiden Kane, viola
Tate Zawadiuk, cello