The Balourdet Quartet’s virtuosic blend of technical precision and emotional depth earned it the 2024 Avery Fisher Career Grant, as well as Chamber Music America’s 2024 Cleveland Quartet Award. The group’s members – Angela Bae and Justin DeFilippis, violins, Benjamin Zannoni, viola, and Russell Houston, cello – recently collaborated with the spectacular Chicago-based pianist Marta Aznavoorian, a brilliant collaborator known for her inspiringly spirited playing. They all had such a good time, they asked us if they could come perform on Live From WFMT. And so, tonight’s edition of LFW holds the Granados Piano Quintet, along with repertoire for string quartet: a work Paul Novak composed especially for the Balourdet Quartet, and Beethoven’s monumental Op. 132.
Balourdet Quartet and Marta Aznavoorian, piano
Balourdet String Quartet (Photo: Luke Ratray) and Pianist Marta Aznavoorian (Photo: Chicago fashion photographer)
