Grand Prize winners of the 2025 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition and winners of the CAG Louis and Susan Meisel Prize, the Katarina String Quartet has quickly distinguished itself as one of North America’s most compelling young ensembles. Known for their personable concert presentations and community leadership, they explore all chamber music, from contemporary and canonized works to folk tunes. The tightly-knit ensemble recently served as the 2024-2026 Graduate Resident String Quartet at The Juilliard School, and is the current Quartet in Residence at the New England Conservatory.
The ensemble’s 2026/27 season features performances across Europe, Canada, and the United States, including appearances at Jordan Hall, Merkin Hall, Princeton University Summer Chamber Concerts, Middlebury College, Pepperdine University, and University of Victoria. Past seasons have brought the ensemble to Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, Chamber Music Detroit, University of Notre Dame, and Dame Myra Hess Concerts. The quartet was recently selected for Music for the Future, an initiative presented by Project: Music Heals Us which brings meaningful collaborative music residencies into carceral facilities, reentry programs, addiction treatment centers, and juvenile youth facilities. The ensemble also collaborates with other community-focused organizations such as Music for Food and Reffettorio Harlem. In the competition world, recent honors include the ProQuartet Prize and Drimnin String Quartet Academy Prize at the 2025 Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition, and the Gold Medal and BIPOC Composer Prize at the 2024 St. Paul Chamber Music Competition.
As recipients of the 2025 Chamber Music America Ensemble Forward grant, the KSQ have recently launched their Sustainability Strategic Planning Project. This project examines the environmental impact of string quartet touring and helps the quartet mitigate this impact through measurable operational decisions, collaborative venue partnerships, and transparent communication with audiences.
The KSQ was founded in 2022 at McGill University under the tutelage of André Roy. Since then, the Katarinas have worked extensively with members of the Juilliard, Alban Berg, Danel, Dover, and Pacifica Quartets, and have participated in prestigious programs such as IMS Prussia Cove and McGill International String Quartet Academy (MISQA). Also active in the European chamber music scene, the Katarina String Quartet is generously supported by the Nederlandse Strijkkwartet Academie and regularly performs in The Netherlands.
As a largely Canadian quartet formed in Montréal, Québec, the quartet keeps their Canadian roots close to their hearts in their work together, including recent collaborations with the I Musici de Montréal and the Amici String Program in Calgary, Alberta. The Katarinas also enjoy sharing their home country through their programming by playing works by Canadian composer Vivian Fung and by composing their own arrangements of traditional Québecois fiddle tunes.
The quartet takes its name from luthier Katarina Guarneri, wife of violin-maker Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesu. Scholars believe that she worked on her husband’s violins during the most productive years of his career. Inspired by Katarina, the KSQ celebrates the countless people and communities behind the canonized figureheads of classical music that contribute to the art we enjoy.
The ensemble’s 2026/27 season features performances across Europe, Canada, and the United States, including appearances at Jordan Hall, Merkin Hall, Princeton University Summer Chamber Concerts, Middlebury College, Pepperdine University, and University of Victoria. Past seasons have brought the ensemble to Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, Chamber Music Detroit, University of Notre Dame, and Dame Myra Hess Concerts. The quartet was recently selected for Music for the Future, an initiative presented by Project: Music Heals Us which brings meaningful collaborative music residencies into carceral facilities, reentry programs, addiction treatment centers, and juvenile youth facilities. The ensemble also collaborates with other community-focused organizations such as Music for Food and Reffettorio Harlem. In the competition world, recent honors include the ProQuartet Prize and Drimnin String Quartet Academy Prize at the 2025 Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition, and the Gold Medal and BIPOC Composer Prize at the 2024 St. Paul Chamber Music Competition.
As recipients of the 2025 Chamber Music America Ensemble Forward grant, the KSQ have recently launched their Sustainability Strategic Planning Project. This project examines the environmental impact of string quartet touring and helps the quartet mitigate this impact through measurable operational decisions, collaborative venue partnerships, and transparent communication with audiences.
The KSQ was founded in 2022 at McGill University under the tutelage of André Roy. Since then, the Katarinas have worked extensively with members of the Juilliard, Alban Berg, Danel, Dover, and Pacifica Quartets, and have participated in prestigious programs such as IMS Prussia Cove and McGill International String Quartet Academy (MISQA). Also active in the European chamber music scene, the Katarina String Quartet is generously supported by the Nederlandse Strijkkwartet Academie and regularly performs in The Netherlands.
As a largely Canadian quartet formed in Montréal, Québec, the quartet keeps their Canadian roots close to their hearts in their work together, including recent collaborations with the I Musici de Montréal and the Amici String Program in Calgary, Alberta. The Katarinas also enjoy sharing their home country through their programming by playing works by Canadian composer Vivian Fung and by composing their own arrangements of traditional Québecois fiddle tunes.
The quartet takes its name from luthier Katarina Guarneri, wife of violin-maker Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesu. Scholars believe that she worked on her husband’s violins during the most productive years of his career. Inspired by Katarina, the KSQ celebrates the countless people and communities behind the canonized figureheads of classical music that contribute to the art we enjoy.
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