(Third Coast Review), the American-Canadian Callisto Quartet brings together four musicians who share a deep passion for bringing chamber music to audiences around the world. Since their inception at the Cleveland Institute of Music in 2016, Callisto has garnered top prizes in nearly every major international chamber music competition and has been hailed by audiences across the globe. Grand Prize winners of the 2018 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and Second Prize Winners of the 2019 Banff International String Quartet Competition, the Callisto Quartet has also taken home prizes from the Bordeaux, Melbourne, and Wigmore Hall competitions. Currently the Fellowship Quartet in Residence at Yale University, Callisto has previously held residencies at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music and the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía in Madrid, Spain. From 2020-2022 Callisto was the Ernst Stiefel Quartet in Residence at Caramoor Center for Music and Arts, where they were the first quartet to perform all six string quartets of Bartòk.
The Callisto Quartet maintains an active touring and performing schedule, which has included notable appearances in Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Schneider Concert Series, Ravinia Festival, and the Heidelberg String Quartet Festival. Additionally, Callisto has been invited to perform at renowned chamber music festivals throughout North America and Europe, such as the La Jolla Music Society Summerfest, the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, the Emilia Romagna Festival, the Jeunesses Musicales Deutschland Chamber Music Campus, the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, and the McGill International String Quartet Academy. At the invitation of Gerhard Schulz, they attended the 2018 Prussia Cove International Musicians Seminar where they also worked with Gidon Kremer and Thomas Adès. In 2021, Callisto performed a series of concerts in Berlin and Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, at the Musethica International Chamber Music Festival, where they collaborated closely with Avri Levitan.
Callisto has been honored to collaborate with many legendary artists, including cellist David Geringas at the Cleveland Cello Society’s 20th anniversary concert and clarinetist Franklin Cohen on the ChamberFest Cleveland Series. Over the 2018-2019 seasons at the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival they have shared the stage with musicians such as Paul Watkins, Lawrence Power, and Gilles Vonsattel. In 2021, Callisto recorded Schubert’s Cello Quintet with Desmond Hoebig for the 2021 Banff International String Quartet Festival.The Callisto Quartet is committed to continually broadening their musical horizons by drawing inspiration from a plethora of mentors and musical approaches.
They are also dedicated educators and believe in the importance of mentoring students and connecting with audiences in a meaningful way. Callisto most recently developed a unique chamber music curriculum entitled “Chamber Music Deconstructed: a Comprehensive Curriculum developed by the Callisto Quartet”, which they implemented during their 2021-22 teaching residency at the Fine Arts Center in Greenville, SC, and are currently bringing to other schools across the United States.The Callisto Quartet is managed exclusively by Earl Blackburn of Kanzen Arts.
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The critics praised President and Artistic Director of Grand Piano Series and Moldovan-American pianist Milana Strezeva for her “technically fluid, dramatically convincing, and sonically full-bodied supportive collaborations” (Boston Globe). At 11, she began playing chamber music with her clarinetist father and her mother, a renowned soprano Svetlana Strezeva. Milana’s love for family collaboration eventually grew into a passionate advocacy of vocal and instrumental music and led her to establish Grand Piano Series in Southwest Florida.
A founding member of the award-winning Manhattan Piano Trio, one of the most creative and dynamic young ensembles in America, Milana has performed with them in over 30 American states, in Australia, South Africa, and Italy, and venues such as Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Hall, and the Ravinia Festival. The Washington Post described the Trio as “impressive” and “outstanding.” At the same time, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune said, “one seldom is privileged to enjoy the music of such a wide range of styles performed with self-effacing skill and relaxed assurance.” In honor of the composers’ bicentennials, a CD of Schumann and Chopin trios was successfully released on the Marquis Classics label in 2009.
Milana is a recipient of Grand Prizes at the Plowman Chamber Music Competition, Yellow Springs Chamber Music Competition, Australian Broadcasting Corporation Listeners Choice Award in Melbourne, IBLA International Competition as a vocal collaborator, and Arts Recognition and Talent Search Award. Among the prominent venues in which she has performed are – Carnegie Hall (New York), Jordan Hall (Boston), Kravis Center (West Palm Beach), Gusman Hall (Miami); Shenzhen Concert Hall (China), South Melbourne Town Hall (Australia), Linder Auditorium (South Africa).
Mozart: String Quartet No.16 in E-flat major, K.428
Ravel: String Quartet in F Major
Franck: Piano Quintet in f minor
They say that Mozart took dictation from God, as his manuscripts have no evident corrections. His musical genius is on full display in this Quartet. Ravel, in turn, was Mozart’s most ardent admirer and studied his scores while composing his music. The perfect pairing: two musical geniuses connected across time. Franck’s Quintet is considered a symphony: romantic and show-stopping, it is in equal measure lyrical and grandiose. Like Belgian chocolate, one cannot have too much of this good thing!
