Dechopol Kowintaweewat, violin
Haruno Sato, violin
Julian Alexander Sawhill, viola
Zizai Ning, cello
The Zorá Quartet, named “The future of chamber music” in a concert review in Oregon ArtsWatch, leapt into national attention in 2015 when they won three major awards: the Young Concert Artists International Auditions, the Grand Prize and Gold Medal of the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition, and the Coleman Chamber Music Competition in California.
The Zorá, praised for their “melting sound and affecting impetuosity” by the New York Times, was selected to participate in many prestigious festivals such as the Aspen Music Festival and School, the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Chamber Music Encounters, the Chamber Music Northwest Festival, the Bravo! Vail, the Verbier Academy and the McGill International String Quartet Academy.
Aspires to educate individual students, the Zorá had served as mentors for collegiate-level string players, and initiated outreach projects to introduce new audiences to chamber music. The Quartet has given masterclasses at Mozarteum University Salzburg, University of the Arts Bremen, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and outreach performances across the United States. It also has served as faculty at the Indiana University String Academy and the Stanford Pre-Collegiate Studies.
The Quartet, formed at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music under the tutelage of the Pacifica String Quartet, served as the Graduate Quartet in Residence at the Jacobs School of Music from and the Curtis Institute of Music. The name “Zorá” was chosen by violin professor Kevork Mardirossian at Indiana University; it means “sunrise” in Bulgarian.
