Described by the Washington Post as “completely engrossing, powerful and elegant” the Cavani Quartet’s artistic excellence, generous spirit, and their fervent ambassadorship for great music has placed them among America’s greatest string quartets. The quartet’s more than thirty year legacy has garnered impressive recognition including The Naumburg Chamber Music Award, Ohio Governors Award for the Arts, Musical America Magazine’s Young Artists of the Year, The Cleveland Quartet Award, ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming, The Guarneri Quartet Award Artistic Excellence,  well as prize winners at The Fischoff, Colman and Banff International Quartet Competitions.

The Cavani Quartet continues their journey maintaining an energetic balance between performing cycles of Beethoven and Bartôk quartets, collaborating with living composers such as Gabriela Lena Frank and Joan Tower, and creating multifaceted programming that combines music, poetry, and dance. The Cavani Quartet has been the recipient of more than ten Chamber Music America Residency Partnership Grants, toured throughout all fifty states, and internationally, including appearances at festivals such as the Perlman Music Program, New World Symphony, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Kniesel Hall, Interlochen Center for the Arts, Madeline Island, Chautauqua Festival,  Aspen Music Festival, Encore Chamber Music, Ijsbreker series in Amsterdam and Pro Quartet, France.

The Quartet has been featured on National Public Radio’s Performance Today and Saint Paul Sunday Morning, as well as syndicated quiz show “Says You”. The Cavani Quartet’s discography includes works by Beethoven, Ravel, Bartók, Dvořák, Schumann, Brahms, Shostakovich, Erb, Chausson, Brouwer, Beethoven and Primosch. The Cavani Quartet has commissioned, premiered and performed the music of more than forty living composers, including Josh Henderson, Joan Tower, Donald Erb and Margaret Brouwer, and had the honor of collaborating with some of the greatest artists of our time including Alisa Weilerstein, Itzhak Perlman, Sergei Babayan, Kim Kashkashian as well as members of the KLR Trio, Takács, Cleveland, Juilliard, Tokyo, Ying, Emerson, St Lawrence, Amadeus and Guarneri String Quartets.

Passionate leaders in the field of arts advocacy and education, the Cavani Quartet views the empathy and connectivity of chamber music as metaphor for the kind of communication that we should strive for between cultures and nations. The quartet continues to inspire and shape the musical lives of the next generation through their acclaimed seminar The Art of Collaboration; Rehearsal Techniques & Teambuilding and soon to be published guidebook by Oxford University Press, which emphasizes a team -work approach to chamber music rehearsal techniques. The Art of Collaboration is frequently presented as a supplement to the MBA and EMBA Leadership courses at The Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University and for business schools around the country.

Deeply committed to providing transformative musical and educational experiences to their own community, The Cavani Quartet assumed the Artistic Directorship of Arts Renaissance Tremont, in 2021  and for more than 30 years, served as faculty Artists- in -Residence at the Cleveland Institute of Music. At CIM the Quartet inaugurated nationally acclaimed programs for student ensembles devoted to the serious study of chamber music including The Intensive Quartet Seminar, The Apprentice Quartet Program, The Art of Collaboration and The Art of Engagement: Careers and Leadership in Music.The Cavani Quartet is proud and privileged to have taught and mentored members of many distinguished ensembles who have participated in these programs including the Jupiter, Miro, Dali, Verona, Daedalus, Catalyst, Omer, Aeolus, Attacca, Fry Street, Biava, Telegraph, Maia, Linden, Harlem, Kasa and Afiara String Quartets, as well as principal members of the New York Philharmonic,  Minnesota Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, The Cleveland Orchestra, St Paul Chamber Orchestra, ECCO, A Far Cry and The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Innovative multi-discipline programing includes COLLAGE: Music and Poetry, with Poet and Professor of Pan African Studies Mwatabu Okantah, and TEAM UP with MUSIC© to ignite and support instrumental school programs.

The Quartet has served as Visiting Artists at The University of Texas, Austin, The University of Southern Illinois, Carbondale, The University of California, Riverside, The Mc Duffie Center for Strings, and The University of Iowa String Quartet Residency Program, and the Immersive Residency Program for the John J. Cali School of Music Bridges Program with The Kaufmann Music Center in New York. The Quartet has been on the Advisory Board of Amateur Chamber Music Players and currently serves on the Honorary Board of the Suzuki Association of theAmericas and served as participants in The Violins of Hope Project  violinsofhopecle.org.

For more information please visit cavani.org.

Annie Fullard and Catherine Cosbey, violins | Sam Rosenthal, guest viola (2024-25) | Kyle Price, cello