Pedro Rodríguez Rodríguez, Violin
Rebecca Anderson, Violin
Inés Picado Molares, Viola
Justin Goldsmith, Violoncello

Winners of the 2018 Astral Artists National Auditions, the Vera Quartet is in its first season as quartet in residence at the Curtis Institute of Music. The quartet has received Grand Prizes at recent Plowman and Yellow Springs chamber music competitions, top prizes from the M-Prize Chamber Arts Competition, and the St. Lawrence award from the Wigmore Hall String Quartet Competition.

Since its formation in 2015, the Vera Quartet has quickly established itself as one of the most exciting ensembles of its generation. The quartet has been in residence at Beethoven-Haus in Bonn, Germany, and has toured South Korea and Spain. In 2017, the quartet participated in the Robert Mann String Quartet Seminar and the Juilliard String Quartet Seminar, and was selected as a Young Artist in Residence at APM’s Performance Today. The quartet has also participated in the Chamber Music Residency program at the Banff Centre in Canada, the Center for Advanced Quartet Studies at the Aspen Music Festival, the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, and the McGill International String Quartet Academy.

While Graduate Quartet-in-Residence at the Jacobs School of Music (2016–2018), the Vera Quartet studied under the mentorship of the Pacifica Quartet, performed with world-renowned pipa player Wu Man as part of the China Remixed Festival, recorded selections for the school’s Bloomingsongsalbum, and partnered with Bloomington’s Musical Arts Youth Organization to teach and coach chamber music with young musicians. The quartet also partnered with the IU Latin American Music Center to bring the music of Latin American composers to a larger audience. With members from Spain, Cuba, and the U.S., the Vera Quartet shares a deep commitment to exploring and programming the music of their roots, as well as the great masterworks of the string quartet repertoire.

In addition to the Pacifica Quartet, the Vera Quartet has been coached by members of the Juilliard, Cleveland, Brentano, St. Lawrence, Tokyo, American, Mendelssohn, and London-Haydn quartets, as well as Atar Arad, Mauricio Fuks, and Peter Stumpf.

About the Nina Von Maltzahn String Quartet Program

The Nina von Maltzahn String Quartet Program at the Curtis Institute of Music admits young quartets of extraordinary promise who have been formed for at least one year. Ensembles admitted into this two-year diploma program consist of excellent musicians both individually and collectively, have clear aspirations for a career as a professional quartet, and demonstrate an affinity for Curtis’s “learn by doing” approach to artistic development. Quartet members participate in concerts of contemporary music with the Curtis 20/21 Ensemble and tour as a part of Curtis on Tour.