Noted GhostTM Felix Mendelssohn died at the young age of 38 - but he’s our violinist @carmenabelson’s pick for which composer she would give 50 more years to. Our Rosehill Cemetery concert features Mendelssohn’s String Quartet No. 6, the last major work he wrote; join us on Oct 28 at the May Chapel to check out the beautiful, wild things he was up to before he died!

Poster reveal! @carmenabelson has outdone herself this time. Come to the cemetery on Oct 28 to tell her how great this is - tickets at the link in our bio!

New season alert! Swipe for our 25-26 dates! It couldn’t be more fitting that we will officially kick our concerts off with our annual Rosehill Cemetery extravaganza, this year featuring works by Mendelssohn, Kaoutzani, Ko, and Lizée. We have 20 discounted early bird tickets available until October 1 so head to the link in our bio to reserve your seat in the gorgeous May Chapel on October 28! Other highlights of this year include our March residency at @westernmichu, a long awaited double bill with @quincetagrams at @thecheckoutchicago, and our debut at The Block, presented by @westmichigansymphony. Our website is ✨freshly updated✨ with all of our season details and we can’t wait to see you at a concert soon!

Did you know Haydn wrote his Op 20 string quartets in a swamp? Okay…in a palace that was in a swamp, but still! The last movement of the quartet is a four part fugue and Haydn left the note “Thus one friend flees another friend” in the score — we couldn’t help but imagine our fugue friends having a tea party in honor of our upcoming Tea Time concert, delightfully realized by @carmenabelson Be our friend, come hear this fugue! We’ll see you at the tea party! 🗓️ April 3 ⏰ 4:30pm (4:15 for snacks) 📍 Fulton Recital Hall, University of Chicago

VSQ added György Ligeti’s String Quartet No. 1 Métamorphoses nocturnes into our repertoire this year, debuting it at our favorite venue in Chicago (🪦 Rosehill Cemetery, seen above 🪦). We’ve been on a journey with this piece ever since then, playing it and living with it all winter, and our final Ligeti performance of the season is now upon us! Catch Ligeti alongside another favorite of ours, Haydn’s Op 20 No 2, in our Tea Time Recital on April 3. This afternoon concert is free with no tickets required — and there are free cookies and tea available if you show up at 4:15! 🗓️ April 3 ⏰ 4:30pm (4:15 for snacks) 📍 Fulton Recital Hall, University of Chicago

Need a little lunchtime concert break to recover from the first week of December? We sure do — please join us at @fourthchurch this Friday for our debut Musicians Club of Women Artist in Recital performance featuring works by Our Girl Grażyna Bacewicz, our pal @ledahfinck (of @bergamotquartet), the Danish String Quartet, and Rhiannon Giddens. The show is free and no tickets are required! If you’re not able to get to downtown Chicago, hit the livestream link in our bio to tune in from afar.

Another Halloween, another successful Rosehill Cemetery concert! 🪦👻 Thank you to everyone who filled the May Chapel last night — we hope you enjoyed our Haydn, @jahannau, @luisongolilongo , and Ligeti program. We can’t wait to play more spooky sounds for you here next October!

We love Ligeti — and clearly so do you! Our Wednesday evening concert featuring his String Quartet No. 1 Métamorphoses nocturnes is OFFICIALLY SOLD OUT! We are thrilled and delighted that so many of you will join us in the May Chapel at Rosehill Cemetery for our first performance of this weird and beautiful work. If you weren’t able to grab a ticket, we are so sorry we won’t see you this time around but fear not — you can catch us at our next Chicago performance, on December 6th at Fourth Presbyterian Church on the Musicians Club of Women’s Artist in Recital series.

There are still tickets available for next week’s show at Rosehill Cemetery! They are going fast, though, so head to the link in our bio and grab yours today. We’re featuring our good friend Luis Fernando Amaya on this program with his beautiful, intimate work Dialecto de Árbol No. 4. The temple bell stops but I still hear the sound coming out of the flowers. — Matsuo Basho “This work is the fourth of a series of imaginary ‘tree dialects’ inspired by the following questions: What if plants also communicated through sounds as they do through volatile chemical signals and their roots? And, if they did, what would it sound like? How would languages and dialects work? Would they vary depending on the species, the geography, or the environment (wild vs. urban)? Would humans relate differently to plants if we could hear them? These ‘dialects’ are part of my attempts to challenge the idea of “personhood” as understood in Western thought, opposing it to various Indigenous philosophies (from all over the world) in which this category is not restricted to humans but includes other animals, plants, ideas, stories, rivers, among other types of ‘persons’.” - @luisongolilongo Photo by Ana María Bermúdez.

🚨World Premiere Alert 🚨 Five Miniatures for String Quartet, written for VSQ by our good friend Jonathan Hannau, is “a quaint little piece that explores the beauty and surrealism of a lush, green forest. Also it’s got 2 CRAB CANONS because of Halloween. (no relation)” - @jahannau Get your tickets at the link in our bio to catch the premiere performance of Five Miniatures at the May Chapel of Rosehill Cemetery on October 30!

What do you know about Papa Haydn? We polled some friends, students, and colleagues for their best Haydn facts! “He was divorced.” - Student, age 14 “Stop Haydn The Truth - Classical Music Is Awesome was the name of my senior project!” - @carmenabelson, VSQ violinist “I’ve never heard of him.” - Professional orchestra musician, employer redacted “Who is that, should I listen to him?” - Student, …old enough to know better “Spent a lot of money on wigs. Bankrupted his family. That sounds plausible?” - Piano pedaling technique enthusiast “[His] skull was stolen shortly after his death in 1809.” - Wikipedia, page entitled “Haydn’s Skull” We hope these facts and falsehoods* enhance your enjoyment of our upcoming performance of Haydn’s String Quartet Op. 20 No. 2., which you should definitely listen to. Get your tickets now at the link in our bio and we’ll see you at the cemetery 🪦 * (Haydn was not divorced, nor to our knowledge did he bankrupt his family by buying wigs)

@carmenabelson and Pagliacci are here to remind you to grab your tickets for our return to the May Chapel of Rosehill Cemetery on Oct 30! There are just a few discounted tickets left, get yours before Oct 1 to lock in early bird pricing. Link in bio Works by Ligeti, Haydn, @jahannau, and @luisongolilongo

✨✨Website Launch✨✨ www.varostringquartet.com After a season of operating via Instagram and our newsletter, we spent the summer working on our website so all of your VSQ info is in one place! Head to the shiny new link in our bio to check it out and pay special attention to our updated calendar, which has dates for the rest of the 2024-2025 season 👀👀 (While you’re there, you can also pick up tickets to our upcoming Rosehill Cemetery show - early bird discount still in effect!) Collage by @alissavoth

🪦VSQ Returns to Rosehill Cemetery🪦 October 30, 2024 7pm We’re heading back to the May Chapel of Rosehill Cemetery for our second annual smorgasbord of spooky sounds! The first 20 tickets sold before Oct 1 are discounted automatically so head to the link in our bio ASAP to lock in early bird pricing of $10, otherwise tickets are $15 online and $20 at the door. Haydn, String Quartet Op. 20 No. 2 @luisongolilongo, Dialecto de Árbol No. 4 @jahannau, 5 Miniatures for String Quartet (world premiere) Ligeti, String Quartet No. 1 “Métamorphoses nocturnes” Poster by @carmenabelson

📍@constellationchicago September 1, 8:30pm VSQ couldn’t be more thrilled to be preparing for our ✨first ever✨ world premiere, what it means to fall apart by @_kris_b_kreme_ ! Show up to Constellation on time to hear our pals @ritualaction throw down on the first set, stay for our romp with vocalist @molly.bendrick through this multi-movement work, which draws on a hodgepodge of text including poetry, blogs, and safety manuals to create a postmodern absurdist experience that grapples with the humor and terror of “falling apart.” Tickets at the link in our bio, livestream will be available at that same link if you can’t be in Chicago with us!

Looking for something to do this evening? Listen to @chicagomag and head to the @surgicalmuseumchicago for our micro-portrait concert of Grazyna Bacewicz! This program is an examination of the transition between Bacewicz’s middle compositional period and her late, avant garde period. We’re zooming in on one of her most popular works, String Quartet No. 4, which sits solidly in her middle period, and one of her lesser-performed works, String Quartet No. 5, which in many ways bridges the gap between styles. We’ve discovered so much on this deep dive and we can’t wait to share the Grazy B love with you all tonight! Tickets are at the link in our bio, grab ‘em in advance for $20 or snag one at the door for $25. Student pricing is also available.

Our final concert of the season is coming up! Join us at 7pm on June 14 at the International Museum of Surgical Science (@surgicalmuseumchicago) for a micro-portrait of Grazyna Bacewicz, one of our favorite composers. Tickets are at the link in our bio!

Thank you for having us @bienenschoolnu to workshop Kristopher Bendrick’s new work for string quartet and vocalist at Composer Colloquium! We had a blast and we also saw this rainbow! It’s an important part of our mission as a group to celebrate the existing and incredible literature for string quartet while also expanding that repertoire and working with composers on the creation of new pieces. To that end, we are very excited to formally announce our collaboration with @_kris_b_kreme_ on an evening length worth for string quartet, voice (the delightful @molly.bendrick ), and fixed media! “what it means to fall apart” will premiere in September. Get ready for a wild ride!

Catch us next week at the @northbrookpl Northbrook Public Library! Reserve your free ticket at the link in our bio - and while you’re there, sign up for our newsletter to get all of our concert announcements directly to your inbox New logo by @carmenabelson

New year, new concerts! Mark those 2024 calendars ✨ January 21 📍Northbrook Public Library @northbrookpl 3pm, works by Shostakovich, Hyla, @carolineadelaideshaw, and Debussy. Free admission, reserve your seat at the link in our bio!