Omer Quartet

Mason Yu and Erica Tursi, violins
Jinsun Hong, viola
Alex Cox, cello

Distinctive among today’s young string quartets, the Omer Quartet is known for presenting both fearless renderings of the standard quartet repertoire and compelling works by today’s composers.

It won First Prize in the 2017 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, and holds the Helen F. Whitaker Chamber Music Chair of YCA. The Quartet debuted to critical acclaim in the Young Concert Artists Series at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC and in the Peter Jay Sharp Concert of YCA, with additional support from the Summis Auspiciis Fund, in New York at Merkin Concert Hall.

At the Young Concert Artists Auditions, the Omer Quartet also received four special Performance Prizes: the Tri-I Noon Recitals Prize from New York’s Rockefeller University, the Tryon (NC) Concert Association Prize, the Buffalo Chamber Music Society Prize, and the Hayden’s Ferry Chamber Music Series Prize.

Additional honors include Top Prize at the Premio Paolo Borciani Competition in Italy, Grand Prize and Gold Medal at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, Quartet-in-Residence at New York’s Caramoor Center for Music and Arts, Chamber Ensemble in Residence at the Bravo! Vail Music Festival, the 2019 Parnassus Society Award, and the 2019 John Lad Prize, which includes performances for Stanford Live and Vancouver’s Music on Main series.

This season, the Quartet performs with accordionist Hanzhi Wang in the Young Concert Artists Series at New York’s Morgan Library & Museum, as well as for the Merkin Tuesday Matinee Series, Cosmo Club, Mainly Mozart, Ashmont Hill Chamber Music, Rochester (VT) Chamber Music Society, Tannery Pond Concerts, Portsmouth Chamber Music Series, Valley Classical Concerts, Friends of Chamber Music in Bryan, TX, Tuesdays at Noon, Queens College, Jewish Community Alliance, Tryon Concert Association, National Music Festival, and Ibagué Festival in Colombia. Recent appearances include the Women Leaders Reception for the World Bank in Washington, DC, concerts at Chamber Music Abu Dhabi, and an hour-long feature program on WQXR’s Young Artists Showcase.

Committed to community engagement, the Quartet devotes time to creating original and interactive programs. With a grant by The Boston Foundation it performed in homeless shelters and drug rehabilitation centers in the area. It completed a fellowship with Music for Food to aid local hunger relief through a musician-led initiative directed by Kim Kashkashian, and a Tarisio Trust Young Artists Grant allowed it to continue this organization’s mission by initiating Music for Food concerts in the Washington, D.C. area. This series involves local and out of town guest musicians and has created over 10,000 meals to date.

Following study at the Cleveland Institute of Music, the Omer Quartet completed a graduate residency at the New England Conservatory, where its members gave coachings and masterclasses and worked closely with Paul Katz, Donald Weilerstein, Kim Kashkashian, and Soovin Kim. The Quartet then served as the Doctoral Fellowship String Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Maryland, working with Katherine Murdock and David Salness. It is currently serving a two-year appointment as the fellowship quartet-in-residence at the Yale School of Music.