The Calidore String Quartet Wins BBC Music Magazine Chamber Music Award

The winners of the annual BBC Music Magazine Awards have just been announced, with the Calidore String Quartet winning in the Chamber Music category for their recent album Beethoven: The Late Quartets. Across nine categories, 27 recordings were nominated by the jury of the awards, and this shortlist was posted for public voting. The magazine wrote that the Calidore’s performances on this album “penetrate right to the heart of the music” and “can stand comparison with the best.” 

Regarding the work, the Calidore String Quartet said, “This recording is perhaps the most personal of our projects to date. It tells the story of our decade plus of commitment to each other, this music, and the string quartet as an art form. It is also the guiding light that helped us to emerge closer and even more committed to our path from the uncertain times of the pandemic. We are very happy to have this first installment, The Late Quartets, out in the world and hope this music helps to elevate and connect us to one another.”

This award precedes the Calidore String Quartet’s performance of Beethoven’s complete string quartets with CMS throughout the 2024–25 season.

Get Tickets

The Calidore String Quartet was founded at the Colburn School in Los Angeles in 2010. Within two years, the quartet won grand prizes in virtually all the major US chamber music competitions, including the Fischoff, Coleman, Chesapeake, and Yellow Springs competitions, and it captured top prizes at the 2012 ARD International Music Competition in Munich and the International Chamber Music Competition Hamburg. The Calidore was also named a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist, and in 2018 it was awarded the Avery Fisher Career Grant, having won the Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award a year prior.

Enjoy the Calidore String Quartet performing Beethoven from our archive.

Early Period: Beethoven: Quartet in C minor for Strings, Op. 18, No. 4

Middle Period: Beethoven: Quartet in E minor for Strings, Op. 59, No. 2, “Razumovsky”

Late Period: Inside Chamber Music: Beethoven Quartet in B-flat major for Strings, Op. 130