Verona Quartet
Jonathan Ong, violin | Dorothy Ro, violin | Abigail Rojansky, viola | Jonathan Dormand, cello
“An outstanding ensemble…cohesive yet full of temperament”
-
Known for imaginative programming that bridges classical tradition with contemporary creativity, the Verona Quartet has premiered and commissioned works by Christopher Theofanidis, Julia Adolphe, Texu Kim, Sebastian Currier, and Michael Gilbertson, whose quartet was Pulitzer Prize-nominated. Their recent projects include a Smithsonian-commissioned world premiere for string quartet, yangqin, and dancer, and a new American Songbook collaboration launching in 2025 with tenor Ben Bliss.
-
With performances spanning four continents, the Verona Quartet has appeared at major venues including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Wigmore Hall, and the Kennedy Center, and at festivals such as Santa Fe, La Jolla Summerfest, and Bravo! Vail. Their recording SHATTER debuted at #1 on the Billboard Traditional Classical Chart in 2023, and upcoming releases include a 2026 album of Mendelssohn string quartets—continuing their reputation as artists of both depth and innovation.
-
Praised by The New York Times as an “outstanding ensemble… cohesive yet full of temperament,” the Verona Quartet has established itself as one of today’s leading chamber ensembles. Winners of the 2020 Chamber Music America Cleveland Quartet Award and the 2025 Fischoff Educator Award, they are celebrated for their bold interpretive strength, opulent sonority, and commanding artistry on the world stage.
The Verona Quartet is recognized as a premier ensemble of its generation, praised by The New York Times as an “outstanding ensemble… cohesive yet full of temperament.” Recipients of the 2020 Chamber Music America Cleveland Quartet Award and the Fischoff National Chamber Music Association’s 2025 Educator Award, the ensemble has earned a reputation for its “bold interpretive strength” (Calgary Herald) and “opulent sonority” (The Strad). The Quartet serves on the faculty of Oberlin College and Conservatory as Quartet-in-Residence and as Artistic Directors of the Lunenburg Academy of Music Performance. The ensemble’s rise to international prominence was fueled by a swift succession of top prize wins at Wigmore Hall, Melbourne, Osaka, M-Prize, and Fischoff International Chamber Music Competitions, as well as the 2015 Concert Artists Guild Competition.
A string quartet for the 21st century, the Verona Quartet pairs versatile programming with imaginative collaborations that bridge the time-honored canon and new, interdisciplinary works. Notable commissions and premieres include works by composers Christopher Theofanidis, Julia Adolphe, Texu Kim, and Sebastian Currier, as well as Michael Gilbertson’s Pulitzer Prize-nominated Quartet. The Quartet recently celebrated several world premieres, including a work for string quartet, yangqin (Chinese dulcimer), and dancer by Cheng Jin Koh, commissioned by The Smithsonian Institution in honor of the centennial of the Freer Gallery of Art. The 2025 season marks the launch of a new project with American tenor Ben Bliss, featuring the American Songbook alongside art song literature. Past ventures highlight the group's versatility, ranging from live-performance art installations with artist Ana Prvački to collaborations with the GRAMMY-winning folk trio I’m With Her.
The Quartet’s recording catalog reflects this same spirit of exploration. Their second album, SHATTER, debuted at #1 on the Billboard Traditional Classical Chart in 2023, showcasing works written for the ensemble by Julia Adolphe and Michael Gilbertson, alongside Reena Esmail’s Ragamala with Hindustani vocalist Saili Oak. This followed their debut album Diffusion, praised by BBC Music Magazine for its "radiant glow," and a 2023 release of György Ligeti’s complete string quartet cycle. In 2026, the quartet will release their fourth album featuring the string quartets of Felix Mendelssohn.
-
The Verona Quartet has appeared across four continents, captivating audiences at venues such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Library of Congress, the Smithsonian Institution, Jordan Hall, and Wigmore Hall. They have performed at festivals including the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, La Jolla Summerfest, Chamber Music Northwest, and Bravo! Vail. In addition to its position at Oberlin, the Quartet is featured in annual residencies at the ENCORE Chamber Music Institute and North Carolina’s Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle.
In the 2025–26 season, the Verona Quartet maintains an active schedule with appearances at the Cleveland Chamber Music Society, Telluride Chamber Music, and Montreal’s Ladies Morning Music Club. The ensemble also returns to the
Howland Chamber Music Circle and the University of Hartford, while making debuts with Newport Classical and the Spire Center. Collaborative highlights include tours with guitarist Lukasz Kuropaczewski, pianist Henry Kramer, and saxophonist Steven Banks, alongside a string octet program featuring the Borromeo String Quartet. In 2026, the Quartet returns to the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival to collaborate with clarinetist David Shifrin.
The Verona Quartet takes its name from the city of Verona, paying tribute to William Shakespeare and the belief that the spirit of storytelling transcends genre. The Verona Quartet are D’Addario Artists and The Violin Channel Artists.
March 2026 – Please do not edit without permission.
Videos
Programs & Repertoire
-
PROGRAM I – Novella
Alessandro Scarlatti: Sonata a Quattro No. 4 in D minor
Philip Glass: String Quartet No. 2, “Company”
Janáček: String Quartet No. 1, "Kreutzer Sonata"
Beethoven: String Quartet in E-flat major, Op. 127Spanning more than three centuries, this program traces the evolution of the string quartet through works shaped by narrative, psychology, and the written word. At its core are two quartets inspired by landmark novellas: Samuel Beckett’s Company, which informs Philip Glass’s spare, inward-looking Second Quartet, and Leo Tolstoy’s The Kreutzer Sonata, whose emotional intensity finds a fierce musical counterpart in Janáček’s searing work of the same name. Framed by Scarlatti’s early exploration of quartet texture and Beethoven’s expansive Op. 127; one of the genre’s great monuments, Novella reveals how storytelling, interior monologue, and dramatic tension have continually reshaped the language of the string quartet.
PROGRAM II – Song
Mendelssohn: String Quartet in A minor, Op. 13
George Walker: Lyric for Strings
Tanya Tagaq: “Sivunittini”
Schubert: String Quartet No. 14 in D minor, D. 810, “Death and the Maiden”This program explores the string quartet as a vessel for song—both literal and imagined. Mendelssohn and Schubert each transform their own Lieder into instrumental works of extraordinary emotional depth, drawing on the expressive power of the human voice in Ist es wahr? and Death and the Maiden. George Walker’s Lyric, composed shortly after his graduation from Oberlin Conservatory, continues this vocal lineage, shaping the quartet’s sound around lyricism, breath, and expressive line. Tanya Tagaq’s Sivunittini expands the idea of “song” even further, reimagining traditional Inuit throat singing through Western string instruments, creating a visceral and deeply personal sound world. Together, these works celebrate the quartet as a living, singing form, capable of carrying voice, memory, and identity across cultures and centuries.
-
PROGRAM I – Beginnings - Apex - Farewell
Beethoven: String Quartet No. 2 in G Major, Op. 18 No. 2
Bartók: String Quartet No. 4
Dvořák: String Quartet No. 14 in A-flat Major, Op. 105This program traces an arc from youthful emergence to artistic culmination. Beethoven’s fresh, spring-like Second Quartet stands among his earliest works in the genre, shaped by Classical models and the influence of his teacher. Bartók’s Fourth Quartet, composed in 1928 at the height of his creative powers, forms the program’s structural and expressive centerpiece, celebrated for its rigorous symmetry and bold modern language. Dvořák’s final string quartet, and his last work of absolute music, brings the concert to a radiant close, distilling the composer’s melodic warmth and harmonic brilliance.
PROGRAM II – “Song Book”
Samuel Barber: String Quartet in B minor, Op. 11
Stephen Hartke: Night Songs for a Desert Flower (2009)
*****
George Walker: Lyric for Strings
Dvořák: String Quartet No. 14 in A-flat Major, Op. 105Created in celebration of the 250th anniversary of the United States, String Quartet “Songbook” explores the richness and diversity of American musical identity through works that treat the string quartet as a singing voice—intimate, reflective, and deeply expressive.
At the heart of the program is a strong Oberlin lineage, embodied by the Verona Quartet, whose artistic life and pedagogical work are closely connected to the Oberlin musical community. Samuel Barber’s only string quartet, whose slow movement later became the iconic Adagio for Strings, stands as one of the most enduring expressions of American lyricism and mourning. Stephen Hartke’s Night Songs for a Desert Flower unfolds as a contemporary nocturne, rich in color and atmosphere, while George Walker’s Lyric for String Quartet distills clarity and emotional depth into a concise, luminous statement.
The program concludes with Dvořák’s final string quartet, the last work he began during his years in the United States. Written at the close of his American chapter, it reflects a composer absorbing a new musical landscape while remaining true to his melodic voice. Together, these works form an American “songbook”—shaped by place, tradition, and the enduring power of music that sings.
PROGRAM III – Soundtrack
Korngold: String Quartet No. 2 in E-flat Major, Op. 26
Philip Glass: String Quartet No. 3, “Mishima”
Beethoven: String Quartet No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Op. 131Hollywood stands among America’s most influential cultural exports, and this program traces the deep ties between film and the string quartet. Korngold, one of cinema’s most successful composers, brought Viennese Romanticism into the world of film; his Second Quartet foreshadows the lush harmonic language that would define generations of soundtracks. Philip Glass’s Third Quartet serves as the complete score for Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters, exemplifying his distinctive minimalist voice. The concert concludes with Beethoven’s monumental Op. 131, a work whose influence has extended far beyond music into literature, poetry, and film itself.
-
PROGRAM I – Quartettsatz
Schubert: String Quartet No. 12 in C minor, D. 703, “Quartettsatz”
Philip Glass: Quartet Satz
Tchaikovsky: String Quartet Movement in B-flat Major
*****
Schubert: String Quartet No. 15 in G Major, D. 887Marking the 200th anniversary of Schubert’s death, Quartettsatz pays homage to a composer whose imagination often outpaced completion. Alongside Schubert’s final and expansive G-major Quartet are three compelling single-movement works, each standing as a concentrated statement. Together, these fragments and monuments illuminate the expressive power of ideas left unfinished and those brought fully to fruition.
PROGRAM II – “O Albion”
Haydn: String Quartet in G minor, Op. 74, No. 3 “The Rider”
Thomas Adès: Arcadiana, Op. 12
Britten: String Quartet No. 2 in C Major, Op. 36Albion, the ancient name for Great Britain, frames this tribute to music from the British Isles. Haydn composed his Op. 74 quartets for London audiences, where they were met with immediate success. Britten’s Second Quartet honors Henry Purcell through the Baroque form of the chaconne, reimagined with modern intensity. Thomas Adès’s Arcadiana, a delicately crafted first quartet, takes inspiration from Edward Elgar’s “Nimrod,” with its emotional core poignantly titled “O Albion.”
PROGRAM III – Blueprint
Beethoven: String Quartet No. 10 in E-flat Major, Op. 74
Mendelssohn: String Quartet No. 1 in E-flat Major, Op. 12
Shostakovich: String Quartet No. 3 in F Major, Op. 73The influence of Beethoven looms large over the string quartet tradition. Mendelssohn’s First Quartet draws directly on Beethoven’s Op. 74 as a model for his own early exploration of the genre. Shostakovich, whose quartets were first performed by the Beethoven Quartet, would go on to make one of the most significant contributions to the medium since Beethoven himself. This program reveals lineage, inheritance, and reinvention across generations.