Pacifica Quartet Competitors

Professional String Quartet based in Austin, TX

Camerata Pacifica is a premium chamber music ensemble. Founded in 1990 by Artistic Director Adrian Spence, the group is based in Santa Barbara, CA and performs subscription series in 4 Southern Californian cities: Santa Barbara, Ventura, San Marino & Los Angeles. Camerata Pacifica enjoys a reputation for artistic & programming excellence and over 32 seasons has developed a loyal, durable and intellectually curious audience. This is an international ensemble, drawing its musicians from all over the world. Our artists are representative of the world’s finest, bringing to the stage their highly individual personalities for dynamic performances of music that spans the huge, eclectic range of the chamber music repertoire. Those performances are presented in venues which enhance the intimate and viscerally expressive qualities of the music — an exploration of that intimacy is a critical component of our performances. In 2020 Camerata Pacifica developed a landmark resource for hospitals entitled The Nightingale Channel. Drawing upon our extensive video library, the initiative delivers curated programming to patient bedsides, offering interest and solace when it can be particularly meaningful. The program will launched in January 2021 in a collaboration with UCLA Health.

For over 50 years, San Francisco’s Kronos Quartet — David Harrington (violin), Gabriela Díaz (violin), Ayane Kozasa (viola), and Paul Wiancko (cello) — has pursued a singular artistic vision, combining a spirit of fearless exploration with a commitment to continually reimagine the string quartet experience. In the process, Kronos has become one of the most celebrated and influential groups of our time, performing thousands of concerts worldwide, releasing more than 70 recordings of extraordinary breadth and creativity, collaborating with many of the world’s most accomplished composers and performers, and commissioning more than 1,000 works and arrangements for string quartet. The cornerstone of Kronos’ mission is the unique, live performance voice of the string quartet — the coming together in conversation of distinct but integrated voices. It is from this artistic foundation that Kronos explores, extends, and enhances the musical experience for artists, audiences, and global communities. Kronos achieves its mission as a not-for-profit organization through a wide variety of programmatic initiatives including commissioning, performing, presenting, recording, publishing, archiving, teaching, mentoring, and encouraging the next generations of artists and audiences.