Bergamot Quartet

BIOThe Bergamot Quartet is dedicated to cultivating music for string quartet and beyond as a living and blooming entity, taking a format with a deeply important history in western classical music and continually expanding its limits. They work primarily with living composers, with a priority given to music by women, and aim to place this new, genre-bending music in meaningful dialogue with the histories that precede it. Started in 2016 and currently based in Baltimore, Bergamot Quartet will be relocating to New York City in the fall of 2020 as the inaugural Cuker and Stern Graduate String Quartet in Residence at Mannes School of Music. The group is regularly featured on Baltimore’s Evolution Series and has also participated in many local projects, including the premiere of Oscar Bettison’s Presence of Absence for Ensemble Klang + string quartet, George Crumb’s Black Angels everywhere from a living room in South Baltimore to the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage, and performances of Anthony Cheung’s Real Book of Fake Tunes with flutist Claire Chase. This season includes a visit to El Paso, TX for a weeklong residency, a series of workshops and performances at Towson University, UMBC, and University of Baltimore, and participation in TRIADS: Arrangements in Sight and Sound, a visual and sonic installation conceptualized by MICA student Hannah Davis. They have completed programs at the Banff Center for the Arts, Quatuor Diotima’s Academy in France, and the Next Festival of Emerging Artists, and all studied at the Peabody Conservatory.  The Bergamot Quartet is Ledah Finck and Sarah Thomas, violins; Amy Tan, viola; and Irene Han, cello.