The FORMOSA QUARTET is “one of the very best quartets of their generation” (David Soyer, cellist of the Guarneri Quartet).

Winners of the First Prize and the Amadeus Prize at the London International String Quartet Competition in 2006, the Formosa’s debut recording on the EMI label was hailed as “spellbinding” (Strad Magazine) and “remarkably fine” (Gramophone). Formed in 2002 when the four founding members came together for a concert tour of Taiwan, the quartet has given critically acclaimed performances at the Ravinia Festival, the Library of Congress, the Da Camera Society of Los Angeles, Rice University, the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center, and Wigmore Hall in London.

Formosa Quartet undertakes a variety of residencies at organizations and institutions across the U.S. and Canada. In 2014-2016 Formosa enjoyed a two-year residency with Art of Élan, a San Diego arts-presenting organization; as ensemble-in-residence, the Quartet worked with UCSD professor of composition Lei Liang to create a new piece based on music indigenous to the aboriginal tribes of Taiwan. The two-year project culminated in the 2016 premiere performance of the commission, Song Recollections, and looks ahead to a new CD of the same name, inspired by Hungarian and Taiwanese folk music traditions. Formosa also became the faculty quartet-in-residence at the National Youth Orchestra of Canada in 2014, has been a returning collaborator with Taiwan Studies / Taiwan Lecture Series at UCSD and with composer Shih-Hui Chen at Rice University, and looks forward to an upcoming week-long residency of educational and artistic outreach at Eastern Michigan University.

The members of Formosa Quartet – Jasmine Lin, Wayne Lee, Che-Yen Chen, and Deborah Pae – have established themselves as leading solo, chamber, and orchestral musicians. With degrees from the Juilliard School, Curtis Institute of Music, and New England Conservatory, they have performed in major venues throughout the United States, Asia, and Europe, and have been top prizewinners in prestigious competitions such as the Paganini, Primrose, Fischoff, Naumburg, and Tertis competitions. As chamber musicians, they have appeared regularly at the Marlboro, Kingston, Santa Fe, Ottawa, Ravinia, Crans-Montana, and Schiermonnikoog festivals, as well as at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, La Jolla Summerfest, the Seattle Chamber Music Society, and Open Chamber Music at Prussia Cove. They have held principal positions in the San Diego and Cincinnati Symphonies as well as faculty positions at the University of Southern California, California State University Fullerton, Roosevelt University, Taos School of Music, McGill University, Eastern Michigan University, and the Juilliard School. 

Program:

Schubert Quartettsatz in C minor, D.703

Schubert Cello Quintet in C major, D.956