FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music is pleased to announce that the Balourdet Quartet, its graduate quartet-in-residence, has been awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant.
The ensemble is one of five 2024 recipients, who will be honored and perform tonight at 6 p.m. EDT at WQXR New York Public Radio. The performances will be webcast live by the station.
The Balourdet Quartet is being mentored by the Pacifica Quartet, Jacobs’ faculty quartet-in-residence, during its first year at the school. Balourdet’s members include Angela Bae and Justin DeFilippis, violin; Benjamin Zannoni, viola; and Russell Houston, cello.
“We enthusiastically congratulate the Balourdet Quartet on this amazing accomplishment, as well as the Pacifica Quartet for its invaluable guidance along the way,” said Abra Bush, David Henry Jacobs Bicentennial Dean. “We are very excited to see what the future holds for this outstanding ensemble.”
After having been together for one year at Rice University, and a summer at the Aspen Music Festival, the Balourdet took second prize at the Nielsen International String Quartet Competition and was selected as the only quartet admitted to the New England Conservatory Professional String Quartet Program.
In 2021, the quartet won the grand prize at New York’s Concert Artists Guild Competition, which included joint management by Concert Artists Guild in the U.S. and Young Classical Artist’s Trust in the U.K. and Europe.
The Balourdet Quartet has also been a prizewinner in Canada’s Banff International String Quartet Competition and the International Premio Paolo Borciani Competition in Italy, as well as a gold medal winner at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and gold medal and audience prize winner at the Yellow Springs Competition.
It also earned Chamber Music America’s 2024 Cleveland Quartet Award. With more than 70 concerts per season, recent highlights include the Balourdet’s debuts at Carnegie and Wigmore halls.
“We are thrilled at the awarding of the Avery Fisher Career Grant to the Balourdet Quartet,” said the Pacifica Quartet. “A wonderful honor for an excellent group of musicians!”
Each grant recipient will receive a $25,000 award from the Avery Fisher Artist Program to be used for specific needs in advancing a career. The program was established by the late Avery Fisher in 1974 as part of a major gift to Lincoln Center.