Thalea String Quartet

The Thalea String Quartet brings together artists of Nigerian, Japanese, and North American heritage. With repertoire as diverse as its members, and every bit as exuberant, Thalea connects with audiences on a musical, emotional and personal level, from first-time listeners to chamber music aficionados.  

Top prize-winners at both the 2018 Fischoff and Chamber Music Yellow Springs Competitions, Thalea was founded in 2014 and made its U.S. debut at the Kennedy Center in 2016. They have since performed across North America and in Italy, France, Belgium, and China, and were chosen by Canada’s Début Atlantic to give a two-week tour of eastern Canada. 

Thalea was Caramoor’s 2019 – 20 Ernst Stiefel String Quartet-in-Residence. As part of their residency, Caramoor commissioned a work by Paola Prestini (“one of the top female composers in classical music” — Washington Post) for them, which they premiered at Caramoor in 2021. Thalea has also co-commissioned a chamber version of the Piano Concerto by Florence Price, contributing to the resurgence of interest in this often overlooked African-American composer. They performed this version with pianist Michelle Cann in Caramoor’s Music Room in November 2019.  

Since August 2020, Thalea has been in residence at University of Maryland as the Graduate Fellowship Quartet. For the previous two years, they were the Young Professional Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Texas-Austin’s Butler School of Music, and prior to that they were the inaugural Quartet-in-Residence at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.  

Thalea has shared the stage with the Borromeo Quartet in the Mendelssohn Octet, with Pulitzer Prize-winning composer/vocalist Caroline Shaw, with Geoff Nuttall of the St. Lawrence String Quartet, with pianist Tao Lin, and with 2022 Sphinx Medal-of-Excellence winner pianist Michelle Cann. 

Thalea participated in the 2017 Kronos Festival, and they have been Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel Associated Artists under the mentorship of the Artemis Quartet. Other mentors include the Miró Quartet and members of the Juilliard, Kronos, Takács, Pacifica, and Danish String Quartets. During multiple residencies at the Banff Centre, they worked with Gilbert Kalish, Mark Steinberg, Alasdair Tait, and the JACK and Miró Quartets.  

Quartet members also perform jazz, compose for interactive visual art, sing in choirs, dance ballet, and occasionally act on a hit TV show.  

To learn more about the Thalea Quartet, visit their website.