Press
“Simply the best there is.”
“A remarkably accomplished string quartet, not simply for its high technical polish and refined tone, but more importantly for the searching musical insights it brings.”
“The digital tide washing over society is lapping at the shores of classical music. The Borromeo players have embraced it in their daily musical lives like no other major chamber music group.”
“Each of the greatest string quartets has redefined what the possibilities of the medium are: through the perfection of its ensemble and intonation, through its poise and its passion, the Borromeos are recreating the medium anew and we are lucky to be here to hear it.”
“A musical experience of luminous beauty.”
“The Borromeo Quartet is much more judicious... giving performances with more nuanced contrasts of light and shade, as well as more open windows that your ear can’t help but enter. The music’s mystery, violence, and sorrow become absolutely inescapable.”
“The Boston-based Borromeo String Quartet are a fearless ensemble who appear to savour every sonic and atmospheric challenge.”
“It would not be an exaggeration for me to say that much of this book has come from trying to figure out what makes the Borromeo Quartet’s performances so emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually captivating.”
Borromeo String Quartet
Nicholas Kitchen, Violin
Kristopher Tong, Violin
Melissa Reardon, Viola
Yeesun Kim, Cello
Each performance of the award-winning Borromeo String Quartet strengthens its reputation as one of the most important ensembles of our time. Admired and sought after for both its fresh interpretations of the classical music canon and its championing of works by 20th and 21st century composers, the ensemble has been hailed for its “edge-of-the- seat performances,” by the Boston Globe, which called it “simply the best.”
Inspiring audiences for 35 years, the Borromeo has been the ensemble-in-residence at New England Conservatory for over three decades, and at the Taos School of Music since 2005. The Borromeo also serves as quartet-in-residence at the Heifetz International Music Institute, where first violinist Nicholas Kitchen is Artistic Director. The Quartet has performed on major concert stages across the globe, including appearances at Carnegie Hall, the Berlin Philharmonie, Wigmore Hall, Suntory Hall, the Concertgebouw, Seoul Arts Center, and the Shanghai Oriental Arts Center, and performed for many years with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Highlights of the Borromeo’s 2024-25 season include performances at Korea’s Changwon Festival, Auburn University’s Gogue Performing Arts Center, Clemson University’s Utsey Chamber Music Series, Palm Beach’s Flagler Museum, UCLA’s Clark Library, Music at Kohl Mansion, Eureka Chamber Music Series, Dumbarton Concerts, Summit Chamber Music, Chamber Music Raleigh, Celebrity Series of Boston’s Neighborhood Concerts, and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, where it has enjoyed a long-term relationship since 1991. Beyond the Quartet’s standalone performances, they tour this season with violist Paul Neubauer, pianist Henry Kramer, and in a new octet program with the Verona Quartet.
The Borromeo regularly engages in residencies with universities, conservatories, and educational institutions all over the world. In addition to serving as the 2024-25 Visiting Quartet in Residence at Arizona State University, the Quartet has served in recent seasons as the Hittman Ensemble in Residence at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore and engaged in residencies at the Curtis Institute, San Francisco Conservatory, UCLA, Amherst College, Colorado State University, Kansas University, University of Georgia, University of Winnipeg, and Musik-Akademie Basel. The Quartet has worked extensively as both performers and educators with the Library of Congress, highlighting both its manuscripts and instrument collections. In addition to its extensive performance and academic engagements throughout Asia, the Quartet has also conducted an extensive series of workshops with Triton Arts Network in Japan.
The Quartet has a long history performing at top festivals worldwide, including performances at Spoleto USA and Spoleto Italy, Busan Music Festival, Hong Kong Chamber Music Festival, Incontri in Terra di Siena Chamber Music Festival, Kammermusik Basel, Eisenstadt’s Haydn Festival, Prague Spring Festival, Stavanger Festival, Ravinia Festival, Tippet Rise, and a special feature by Tanglewood in 2020 celebrating Beethoven’s 250th anniversary through performance and a focus on the composer’s manuscripts. The Borromeo has collaborated with many of the most recognized names in classical music, including Joshua Bell, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Jeremy Denk, Jonathan Biss, Leon Fleisher, Menahem Pressler, Christoph Eschenbach, Anne-Marie McDermott, Gary Graffman, Josef Suk, Peter Serkin, Kim Kashkashian, Richard Stoltzman, Larry Lesser, Paul Katz, Michael Tree, Midori, Shmuel Ashkenazi, and even major figures beyond the classical sphere including Branford Marsalis, Christian McBride, and Audra McDonald.
The Quartet has also collaborated with some of this generation’s most important composers, including Gunther Schuller, John Cage, György Ligeti, Steve Reich, Aaron Jay Kernis, Osvaldo Golijov, Jennifer Higdon, Steve Mackey, John Harbison, Sebastian Currier, Pierre Jalbert, and Leon Kirchner, among many others. In addition to regularly premiering new works, including a new quartet by composer Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol which was commissioned by the Smithsonian’s Freer Gallery of Art for the 2024-25 season, the ensemble regularly performs violinist Nicholas Kitchen's transcriptions of Bach’s Goldberg Variations and the Well-Tempered Clavier Books I and II, the former of which is part of the Quartet’s extensive discography.
The Borromeo continues to be a pioneer in its use of technology, and has the trailblazing distinction of being the first string quartet to utilize laptop computers on the concert stage, leading the way for the widespread use of iPads to perform from four-part scores. Among its wide range of approaches with mixed media, the Borromeo also paved the way for artist-led media by becoming the first classical ensemble to make its own live concert recordings and videos. The Quartet often leads discussions enhanced by projections of handwritten manuscripts, investigating with the audience the creative process of the composer as highlighted in an April 2024 feature in The Atlantic.
“Nothing less than masterful” (Cleveland.com), the Borromeo Quartet has received numerous awards throughout its illustrious career, beginning with top prizes at the International String Quartet Competition in Evian, France and the Young Concert Artists International Auditions and subsequently Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Career Grant and Martin E. Segal Award,
Schedule
Upcoming Concerts:
Past concerts: