The Aiana SQ, praised by the Durango Herald as “spirited, precise and full of energy,” has performed both in the US and abroad, and is consistently lauded by audiences for their highly emotional interpretations. The quartet was recently awarded the 2011 Coleman-Barstow Prize for Strings at the Coleman International Chamber Music Competition, and is very pleased to be the newly appointed Young Professional Quartet in Residence at the University of Texas in Austin, where they are under the mentorship of the Miró Quartet. In the artistically rich city of Austin, the Aiana SQ hopes to further explore their passion for new music and interdisciplinary work as a quartet.

Individually, the quartet’s members have performed live with the Janice Garrett & Dancers dance company, premiered concertos at various venues such as Carnegie Hall, performed at the Cervantino and SpazioMusica Festivals, and worked closely with artists including John Corigliano, John Williams and Garth Knox. Experienced as educators as well as performers, the Aiana SQ is dedicated to sharing music through outreach concerts. During their time in San Diego from 2010-2011 as the Scholarship Quartet in Residence at San Diego State University in Association with Mainly Mozart, they served as Guest Artist coaches in chamber music at the Canyon Crest Academy. This past spring they toured Tijuana, Mexico with Mainly Mozart, bringing the music of Beethoven, Bartók, Mozart and Brahms to the ears of hundreds of children in ten low-income elementary schools.

The quartet spent the past summer as fellows at the 2011 Aspen Institute for Advanced Quartet Studies where they worked closely with members of the Takács, American, Calder, Emerson, Cleveland and Juilliard Quartets, and performed on several faculty concerts. During a quick trip to LA in August, the Aiana was the featured string quartet at the 2011 International Clarinet Convention where they were invited to perform with several artists including Ricardo Morales and Joaquin Valdepeñas, principal clarinetists of the New York Philharmonic and Toronto Orchestras respectively. The upcoming season for the Aiana SQ will include many performances in and around Austin, TX but will also take them back to California in November for an appearance with the Redlands Chamber Music Society, and again in April for several performances with the Consortium of Southern California Chamber Music Presenters as winners of the 2011 Beverly Hills Auditions.