This performance by the award-winning Terra String Quartet took place on Saturday, December 16, 2023 at 2:00 pm.

• Program
• About the Terra String Quartet
• About the Artists
  • Harriet Langley
  • Amelia Dietrich
  • Chih-Ta Chen
  • Audrey Chen

Program

Full Program (PDF)

About the Terra String Quartet

Prizewinners at both the 2023 Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition and 2023 Osaka International Chamber Music Competition, the Terra String Quartet (formerly known as the Arte String Quartet) is a vibrant young ensemble based in New York City. Their name is a nod to their multicultural origins; together, this foursome represents five continents and speaks six languages.

Praised for their “remarkable maturity and musicality” and “superb ensemble playing” (Hyde Park Herald, Chicago), these four musicians, through their unique individuality as artists, are committed to infusing the string quartet with equal parts passion, vitality, and humor. Storytelling and spontaneity are at the heart of TSQ’s music making and they craft programs so as to tell a unique tale about the people, places, and ideas behind great works of the past and masterpieces of the present.

TSQ has performed at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, at Alice Tully Hall with cellist Natasha Brofsky as part of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts’s “Wednesdays at One” series, and as part of the Four Seasons Chamber Music Festival’s Winter Workshop in North Carolina, where they performed with Robert McDonald. They have also appeared in concert with Quartetto di Cremona. Their mentors and coaches include Daniel Avshalomov and Laurie Carney of the American String Quartet, Mark Steinberg and Nina Lee of the Brentano Quartet, Ara Gregorian, Hye-Jin Kim, Philip Setzer, Calvin Wiersma, Natasha Brofsky, Catherine Cho, and Joseph Lin.

About the Artists

Harriet Langley

Born in Sydney, Australia, Korean-Australian violinist Harriet Langley made her professional debut with the Reno Philharmonic of Nevada at the age of 13. Harriet has performed as a soloist with the London Chamber Orchestra, the Verbier Festival Orchestra, Sinfonia Varsovia, Vienna Chamber Orchestra, the Gyeonggi Philharmonic of Korea, Orchestre National de Belgique, l’Orchestre Royal Philharmonique de Liège, Bruno Walter Orchestra of Germany, and Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie of Belgium.

Ms. Langley has participated in a number of academies and festivals, including the Seiji Ozawa International Music Academy in Switzerland, Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute, Yellow Barn Festival in Vermont, and the International Musicians Seminar in Prussia Cove, Cornwall. She has recorded two CDs with the Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège; the Vieuxtemps Violin Concerto 7 (2011) and Saint-Saëns Pieces for Violin, including Havanaise and Romances (2013).

Harriet Langley began violin studies in Korea at age 4. She continued her studies in Tokyo, Japan with Asako Iwasawa at the Toho Gakuin Music School, and then in New York with Patinka Kopec and Pinchas Zukerman at the Manhattan School of Music. She then studied with Josef Rissin at the Karlsruhe Hochschule fur Musik in Germany and with Augustin Dumay at the Chapelle Musicale Reine Elisabeth of Belgium. She completed her Bachelor’s degree at the New England Conservatory as a student of Miriam Fried and Lucy Chapman, and she is currently completing her Master’s degree at The Juilliard School as a student of Catherine Cho and Daniel Phillips.

Amelia Dietrich

A native of North Carolina, violinist Amelia Dietrich recently graduated from the Colburn Conservatory where she studied with Robert Lipsett. She is currently a Juilliard first year Master’s student of Ida Kavafian.

An avid chamber musician, Amelia was a founding member of the Calla Quartet, silver medalist at the 2015 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. She has performed throughout the United States and Australia at venues such as The Four Seasons Music Festival, Alice Tully Hall, the Mimir Festival in Melbourne, and Concerts on the Hill in New Hampshire. She has collaborated with artists Robert McDonald, Alessio Bax, Ida Kavafian, Ani Kavafian, Steve Tenenbom, Roger Tapping, Marc Coppey, and Michael Kanen.

Amelia has spent her summers at the Internationale Sommerakademie in Austria, Yellow Barn Young Artist Program, Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, and The Perlman Chamber Music Workshop. Amelia proudly performs on a 1794 Johannes Cuypers violin.

Chih-Ta Chen

Violist Chih-Ta Chen, from Kaohsiung, Taiwan, is the winner of the 2022 Chimei Arts Award and the 2018 Borromeo String Quartet Guest Artist Award. His passion lies in performing chamber music, and he has been featured at Music@Menlo, Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, Taos School of Music, Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival, and Four Seasons Chamber Music Festival.

Chen holds the Jean J. Sterne and Edwin B. Garrigues Fellowship as a student at the Curtis Institute of Music, studying under Roberto Diaz, Hsin-Yun Huang, Ed Gazouleas, and Misha Amory. Previously, he attended the New England Conservatory and Tainan National University of the Arts and studied with Mai Motobuchi, Yong-Zhan Chen, and I-Chen Wang.

Chen plays on the c.1600 “Louis Bailly” viola by Gasparo Bertolotti ‘da Salò,’ loaned from Curtis Institute of Music. In his free time, he loves playing with his two-year-old gray cat, Cheetah.

Audrey Chen

Praised for her “lyricism of dramatic intensity” (San Francisco Classical Voice) and “longevity of phrasing” (Boston Musical Intelligencer), cellist Audrey Chen has performed around the world in venues including Carnegie Hall, the Mariinsky Theatre, Royal Albert Hall, Disney Hall, and the Kennedy Center. She has appeared on NPR’s From the Top Radio Show, concertized with the Seattle Symphony and the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra, and has been featured as a guest artist with the Boston Chamber Music Society, Silk Road Ensemble, Argus Quartet, Parker Quartet, and Borromeo Quartet.

An avid chamber musician, Audrey’s festival appearances include performing at Yellowbarn, Olympic Music Festival, Music@Menlo, Ravinia Steans Music Institute, Four Seasons Chamber Music, Perlman Music Program, Tanglewood Music Center, Taos Music School, and Sarasota Music Festival.

Audrey received her B.A. from Harvard University and an M.M. from the New England Conservatory, where her teachers included Laurence Lesser and Lluis Claret. She is pursuing a D.M.A. at the CUNY Graduate Center under Marcy Rosen while teaching at CUNY Hunter College. Audrey was recently named a 2022 recipient of the prestigious Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans.