We are happy to announce that we have won First Prize and the Melpomene Prize at the Rutenberg Chamber Music Festival, held at University of South Florida.
During this hour-long, intermission-free concert, we are acquainted with a very serious and a tremendously coherent ensemble whose astounding complicity, tuning, ideas, and focus capture the audience." Claude Gingras (La Presse Montreal)
"Their Shostakovich (the Ninth Quartet, Op.117) was harrowing, with the pizzicato chords of the fourth movement zinging like electrical shocks and the recitative-like passages crying out from the depths of the soul..." Tamara Bernstein (La Scena Musicale)
"Right from the start of Beethoven's fiery Quartet Op.59 No.2, we heard a passionate tone and sure sense of timing... the four players found a competitive style perfectly attuned to the music." Arthur Kaptainis (Montreal Gazette)
"Their Schumann (String Quartet in A Op.41 No.3) was a romantic tapestry spun out with equal parts of intensity and lyricism." Lawrence B. Johnson (The Detroit News)
"There was no want of energy or musicality. Technical values like exactness of ensemble, balance and intonation were admirable, if not entirely unblemished. The Cecilias evinced an excellent understanding of the composer's thought world... It was a stunning performance by a quartet of great expectations." Richard Todd (The Ottawa Citizen)
