to capture the First Prize at the BISQC. “With a stunning spirit of creativity that consistently celebrated risk-taking and discovery, the Cecilia Quartet impressed the distinguished jury above all others,” said the competition’s Executive Director, Barry Shiffman, when announcing the winners.

The CSQ now perform for leading presenters in both Canada, the United States, and Europe. They are also the Resident String Quartet at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Music. Their concert recordings have been broadcast on more than a dozen international public radio networks, including Australia, Canada (CBC/SRC), and Germany. In addition to performing, they have a four-CD contract with ANALEKTA. The first recording of music by Dvořák was released in March 2012. The second recording of music by Janáček, Berg, and Webern, entitled Amoroso, was released in spring 2013.

Highly committed to teaching and outreach, the CSQ have held teaching duties at Austin Chamber Music Festival (Texas), San Diego State University (California), McGill University (Québec), QuartetFest at Wilfrid Laurier University (Ontario), Summer String Academy at Indiana University and were recent Quartet Fellows at the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. They have presented educational programs for elementary and high schools across Canada, the USA, Italy, and France. They CSQ actively seek to develop new audiences and their presentations have taken them to venues as varied as the Monarch School for Homeless Youth (San Diego) and the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (Stanford). In 2013, the St. Lawrence String Quartet, Stanford’s Grammy-nominated resident ensemble, awarded the Cecilia String Quartet its 2013 John Lad Prize.  Presented in collaboration with Stanford Live and Vancouver's Music on Main series, the award includes invitations from both organizations to perform during the 2014-15 season.

The quartet enjoys developing innovative programming. In 2009 they created BLiM (Breathing Life into Music), a month-long residency in France in collaboration with ProQuartet and the Centres culturels de rencontre (Cultural Centres – Historic Monuments) association in France and Europe (ACCR). In 2010, they collaborated with the Afiara String Quartet in premièring and recording compositions by eight composers of the Common Sense Composers Collective at The Banff Centre. In 2011, they collaborated with actor and director Alon Nashman in the multimedia production The Snow Queen. Future special projects include a collaboration with composer Ed Harsh and soprano Stacie Dunlop for the premier of a new work titled Down from Heaven. This work for string quartet and soprano, commissioned by ASCAP, is a response to Schoenberg’s String Quartet No. 2 Op. 10. It will be featured alongside the Schoenberg in a special program for the 2013-2014 season.

Min-Jeong Koh currently plays on the ca. 1767 Joannes Baptista Guadagnini violin on loan from the Canada Council for the Arts and an anonymous donor. Sarah Nematallah currently plays on the 1851 Jean Baptiste Vuillaume violin on loan from an anonymous donor. Rachel Desoer now performs on the 1929 Carlo Giuseppe Oddone cello on loan from the Canada Council for the Arts. The quartet would like to thank the anonymous donors and the Canada Council for the Arts for their generous support.

(May 2013. Please disgard any previopusly dated material.)