Balourdet Quartet Named the 2024 Cleveland Quartet Award Winner

Chamber Music America (CMA), the national network for ensemble music professionals, announced today that the Balourdet Quartet will receive the prestigious Cleveland Quartet Award for the 2024–25 and 2025–26 seasons. The award will be presented on January 21 during CMA’s 2024 Awards bruncheon during its National Conference; honorees also include Herbie Hancock and JACK Quartet.

Established in 1995, the biennial Cleveland Quartet Award honors and promotes a rising string quartet whose artistry demonstrates significant promise in the field. “The Cleveland Quartet Award is named for one of history’s most illustrious string quartets, known for their exceptional artistry as well as generosity as mentors and educators propelling the art form,” says CMA’s CEO Kevin Kwan Loucks. “It’s an honor to add the Balourdet Quartet to the list of 13 other landmark ensembles who have since made their mark in chamber music, and I am thrilled for string quartet enthusiasts nationwide to hear these young musicians and watch their career unfold.”

In culminating their remarkable 26-year history, members of the Cleveland Quartet envisioned a legacy for young musicians and joined forces with CMA and eight prominent presenters to establish the Cleveland Quartet Award Endowment Fund (managed by CMA). Nominations for the award are submitted confidentially to CMA by a national roster of chamber musicians, presenters, and educators. Previous recipients are the Brentano, Borromeo, Miami, Pacifica, Miró, Jupiter, Parker, Jasper, Ariel, Dover, Rolston, Verona, and Aizuri Quartets.

As part of the Cleveland Quartet Award, the Balourdet Quartet will be presented by a consortium of eight presenters: the Buffalo Chamber Music Society; Carnegie Hall; Chamber Music Society of Detroit; Freer and Sackler Galleries of Art at the Smithsonian in Washington, DC; Friends of Chamber Music in Kansas City, MO; Market Square Concerts in Harrisburg, PA; Krannert Center at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; and the University of Texas at Austin.

The Balourdet Quartet joins CMA’s distinguished cohort of 2024 honorees, including jazz icon Herbie Hancock, who will be honored as the Richard J. Bogomolny National Service Awardee, and JACK Quartet, the recipient of the Michael Jaffee Visionary Award.

Named in recognition of former CMA Board Chairman Richard Bogomolny, the National Service Award honors those whose career represents historic service on a national level—those who have made significant and lasting contributions to enrich and foster a greater appreciation for chamber music. Previous recipients include Lucy Shelton, The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM); Billy Taylor; the Juilliard, Emerson, and Kronos Quartets; Chick Corea; and Paquito D’Rivera.

Embodying this lifetime achievement award is Herbie Hancock, whose career—spanning six decades and 14 Grammy Awards (including the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award)—has transcended musical boundaries while maintaining his unmistakable voice. As a member of the Miles Davis Quintet in the 1960s, Hancock became one of the pioneers of modern jazz improvisation and is considered one of the most influential voices in jazz history.

Established in 2017, the Michael Jaffee Visionary Award (named for former CMA President Michael Jaffee) celebrates remarkable artistry, creativity, and a commitment to advancing the boundaries of chamber music through innovation, exploration, and experimentation. Recipients include Ronnie Malley, Seth Parker Woods, PUBLIQuartet, Jon Batiste, and now, JACK Quartet, whose members have introduced international audiences to a range of experimental chamber music. Since their founding in 2005, they remain on the forefront of the field—commissioning new music and collaborating with composers to bring it to life. JACK Quartet has received three CMA Classical Commissioning grants for works by Jason Eckardt (2010), Cenk Ergün (2014), and Catherine Lamb (2018).

The 2024 awards ceremony will take place January 21 during CMA’s National Conference at The Westin New York, beginning at 10:30am. The Awards bruncheon will include tribute performances, brunch, and the presentation of six new annual awards including Ensemble of the Year, Album of the Year, Arts Advocate, Presenter of the Year, Commission of the Year, and Interdisciplinary Collaboration of the Year. Winners will be announced during the event.

Tickets for the Awards Ceremony are included with Sunday conference registrations. Multi-day registration passes are also available here. Tickets will not be available at the door.

Additional details about the awardees follow.

Balourdet Quartet:

Currently in residence at the prestigious Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, the Balourdet Quartet received the Grand Prize at the 2021 Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition, as well as prizes in international competitions including the Banff, Borciani, and Carl Nielsen Competitions. The Quartet was also awarded the Gold Medal at the 2020 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and the 2021 Chamber Music Yellow Springs Competition. Notable upcoming performances include those at Northwestern University, the La Jolla Music Society, Schneider Concert Series, and Chamber Music Houston. The Quartet will serve as the quartet-in-residence for the Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle in 23/24.

The Quartet has performed at festivals and series including Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival, the Aspen Music Festival, Bravo! Vail, La Jolla Music Society Summerfest, the Dame Myra Hess Concerts, Montgomery Chamber Music, Music Mountain, Santa Fe ProMusica, Strings Music Festival, and the Schneider Concert Series. Committed to sharing their musical values with the next generation, the Quartet has given masterclasses at New England Conservatory’s Preparatory Department, the Fischoff Chamber Music Academy, Upper Valley Chamber Music, Wright State University, as well as a residency teaching and performing at the Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival. In 2022-23, the Quartet premiered a new commissioned work by celebrated composer Karim Al- Zand, made possible through Chamber Music America’s Classical Commissioning Grant.

Balourdet Quartet formed in 2018 at Rice University in Houston, Texas, under the tutelage of James Dunham, Norman Fischer, and Cho-Liang Lin. They are currently working closely with the estimable Pacifica Quartet at Indiana University and are recent graduates of Boston’s historic New England Conservatory Professional String Quartet Program. The Quartet takes its name from Antoine Balourdet, chef extraordinaire at the Hotel St. Bernard and beloved member of the Taos School of Music community.

Herbie Hancock:

Herbie Hancock, a 14-time GRAMMY Award winner and Academy Award winner, is an internationally renowned pianist and composer who has been an integral part of every jazz movement since the 1960s. As a member of the Miles Davis Quintet, Hancock became one of the pioneers of modern jazz improvisation and one of the most influential voices on the piano in the history of jazz. His recordings in the ’70s combined electric jazz with funk and rock, influencing decades of music. His 1983 hit song “Rockit” established Hancock as an innovator in electronic music and inspired a generation of hip-hop artists. He received an Oscar in 1986 for scoring the film Round Midnight. In 2007, he won the GRAMMY for Album of the Year, becoming the first jazz musician to receive this honor in 44 years. His most recent collaborations include Terrace Martin, Flying Lotus, Wayne Shorter, Kamasi Washington, Robert Glasper, Jacob Collier and Lionel Loueke. Hancock serves as UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Intercultural Dialogue and is the Institute’s Chairman. He has been involved with the Thelonius Monk Institute—renamed in 2019 as the Herbie Hancock Institute for Jazz, for which he currently serves as Institute Chairman. He was named a Commandeur of the Order of Arts and Letters, and in 2013, received a Kennedy Center Honor.

JACK Quartet:

Hailed by The New York Times as “our leading new-music foursome,” JACK Quartet is synchronized in its mission to create an international community through transformative, mind-broadening experiences and close listening. Comprising violinists Christopher Otto and Austin Wulliman, violist John Pickford Richards, and cellist Jay Campbell, JACK was founded in 2005 and operates as a nonprofit organization dedicated to the performance, commissioning, and appreciation of 20th- and 21st-century string quartet music. JACK has a prolific commissioning and recording catalog and has been nominated for three GRAMMY Awards. This season, the quartet is featured in the ongoing celebrations of John Zorn’s 70th birthday, a three-concert day at Wigmore Hall, a premiere by Natacha Diels in Philadelphia, an Australian tour, and the 5th edition of JACK Studio. JACK’s all-access initiative JACK Studio funds collaborations with a selection of artists each year to develop new works for string quartet. Through its successful nonprofit model, the quartet has created hundreds of new works, and the world’s top composers choose JACK because of its dedication to innovation.

Chamber Music America:

Chamber Music America, the national network of ensemble music professionals, was founded in 1977 to develop, strengthen, and support the chamber music community. With a membership including musicians, ensembles, presenters, artists’ managers, educators, music businesses, and advocates of ensemble music, CMA welcomes members representing a wide range of musical styles and traditions. In addition to its funding programs, CMA provides its members with consulting services, access to instrument and other insurances, conferences, seminars, and its quarterly publication, Chamber Music magazine.