Biography
The Tesla Quartet was formed at The Juilliard School in 2008 and quickly established itself as one of the most promising young ensembles in New York, winning Second Prize at the J.C. Arriaga Chamber Music Competition only a few months after its inception. The quartet (violinists Ross Snyder and Michelle Lie, violist Megan Mason, and cellist Kimberly Patterson) currently holds a fellowship as the Graduate String Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Colorado-Boulder, where they study with the world-renowned Takács Quartet.
The quartet has enjoyed a busy performing schedule, with concerts throughout Colorado, most notably in Harris Hall at the 2010 Aspen Music Festival. The quartet is also active in the grassroots chamber music organization known as Classical Revolution and can be found performing informal concerts in local bars and cafés. Recent concerts in New York City include a recital debut at the newly renovated Alice Tully Hall in 2009. At Juilliard, the quartet performed on the final concert of the ChamberFest series, and, in collaboration with pianist Liza Stepanova, presented the New York premier of Gabriela Lena Frank's quintet, "Tres Homenajes: Compadrazgo," for the annual FOCUS! Festival concert series. The Quartet currently holds a series of concerts at Grace Lutheran Church in Boulder, CO.
Community involvement and outreach are integral parts of the Tesla Quartet’s mission. The ensemble just began its third year in partnership with the Aspen Music Festival’s Musical Odysseys Reaching Everyone program (M.O.R.E), providing lessons, master classes, workshops, and performances for young string players in the Roaring Fork Valley, Colorado. The quartet also coaches a quartet program in conjunction with the Greater Boulder Youth Orchestras. The 2009-10 season included positions as string mentors to the Boulder Youth Symphony as well as community and public school residencies in Aspen and Vail, Colorado.
In addition to their work with the Takács Quartet, the Tesla Quartet has been coached by the Tokyo String Quartet, the Artis Quartet, James Dunham, Curtis Macomber, Robert Mann, Sylvia Rosenberg, and Michael Tree, and members of the Emerson, Kronos and Leipzig String Quartets. Recently the quartet participated in an innovative workshop with laptop performance technology in collaboration with the Boulder Laptop Orchestra. It was also the central ensemble in a unique series of master classes on classical improvisation, presented by David Dolan of London's Guildhall School. This past summer the quartet held a fellowship at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, and in 2010 they were fellows at the Aspen Music Festival’s Center for Advanced Quartet Studies.