“…an unparalleled gift for communication, both musical and personal.” – Occidental College

On September 30, 1989, the members of the Marian Anderson String Quartet, then known as the Chaminade Quartet, came together; unaware that they would soon change history. In 1991, the Quartet won the International Cleveland Quartet Competition, becoming the first African American ensemble in history to win a classical music competition. Since then, the quartet has performed throughout the United States and Europe including concerts through the Da Camera Society, the San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. In 1993, the Marian Anderson String Quartet performed at Washington D.C.’s Kennedy Center as part of the 52nd presidential inaugural celebration. In 2008 the Quartet received the Guarneri String Quartet Award from Chamber Music America (CMA). The award provided the funding for an extensive outreach project featuring the Marian Anderson String Quartet and benefiting the inner-city school children of Seattle, Washington. From 2006-2015 the quartet founded and ran the Marian Anderson String Quartet Community Music School and the summer Community Music Institute in Bryan, TX. Residencies, concerts, and talks have included: The National Gallery of Art (2015), Brown University as the Heimark inaugural artists-in-residence at the Center for the Study for Slavery, and Justice (2016), TedxBlinnCollege (2016) and The Quad City Arts in Iowa (2019).