Award-winning Isidore String Quartet brings music of striking contrasts to the Center for the Arts
The internationally acclaimed Isidore String Quartet makes its Center for the Arts debut on Friday, Sept. 25, at 7:30 p.m. with a program of four distinctive works spanning a century of chamber music.
Winners of a 2023 Avery Fisher Career Grant and the 2022 Banff International String Quartet Competition, the New York City-based ensemble approaches the repertoire with a spirit of rediscovery, moving from the sharp contrasts of Benjamin Britten and the dramatic intensity of Joseph Haydn to the lyrical charm of Frank Bridge and the stormy emotional power of Felix Mendelssohn.
The evening opens with Britten’s “Three Divertimenti” for string quartet, written when the composer was just 19. Its three compact movements, “March,” “Waltz,” and “Burlesque,” reveal the young composer’s playful and distinctly modern voice, moving from restless energy and sly humor to lyrical warmth and dazzling virtuosity.
Haydn’s “String Quartet in F Minor, Op. 20, No. 5” follows. Written in 1772 as part of his influential set of six Op. 20 quartets, the work pairs dramatic intensity with the formal invention that helped establish the string quartet as a major chamber music form.
Following intermission, the quartet performs Bridge’s “Three Idylls” for string quartet, composed in 1906 during the composer’s early Romantic period. Moving between introspection, wistful lyricism, and buoyant energy, the work includes a central movement that Bridge’s student Benjamin Britten later used as the basis for his “Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge,” the work that first brought the young composer international recognition.
Mendelssohn’s “String Quartet No. 6 in F Minor, Op. 80” closes the program. A deeply personal work written in the months after the sudden death of his sister Fanny in 1847, the quartet is intense and urgent from its agitated opening, channeling grief through four movements marked by anger, restlessness, and emotional urgency. Mendelssohn completed the work in September 1847 and died just two months later at age 38.
Formed at the Juilliard School, the Isidore String Quartet has appeared on major series across North America and Europe, including performances at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Beethoven-Haus Bonn, and, during the 2025-26 season, debuts at the Philharmonie de Paris and London’s Wigmore Hall. The ensemble has collaborated with performers including James Ehnes and Jeremy Denk and has developed a strong connection to the music of composer and pianist Billy Childs, performing his second and third string quartets throughout North America and Europe. In February 2026, the quartet premiered a new Childs quartet written expressly for the ensemble.
The quartet takes its name in part from legendary violinist Isidore Cohen, an early member of the Juilliard String Quartet, acknowledging the ensemble’s musical connection to the group.
The performance is supported in part by a gift from Susan M. Hansen and co-sponsored by the Office of Living-Learning Programs.
Related events
Immediately following the performance, the Isidore String Quartet will engage with audience members during a post-performance discussion.
Quartet members will also connect with students and community members beyond the stage during a multi-day residency. The musicians will explore the history and beauty of chamber music with Virginia Tech students enrolled in “Intro to Humanities and Arts” and “Creativity and Artistic Expression” courses and work with violin, viola, and cello students in the School of Performing Arts.
They will lead workshops with students at William Fleming High School in Roanoke and the Virginia Tech String Project, host a private question-and-answer session and brief performance for Virginia Tech students in residential Living-Learning Programs, and visit the Bland Correctional Center to perform and connect with individuals at the facility.
The ensemble will perform a free school-day matinee for 1,000 students and educators from schools throughout the region, including Andrew Lewis Middle School, Kipps Elementary School, Blue Mountain School, Harding Avenue Elementary School, Blacksburg New School, Rocky Mount Elementary School, North Cross School, Tall Oaks Montessori School, and Me, Mine and Us Montessori School, as well as senior partners from the Center for Creative Aging, Warm Hearth Village, and the Radford Senior Center.
Tickets
Tickets are $25-60 for general audiences and $10 for students and youth 18 and under. Tickets can be purchased online; at the Center for the Arts box office, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday; or by calling 540-231-5300 during box office hours.
Venue and parking information
The performance will be held in the center’s Anne and Ellen Fife Theatre, located within the Street and Davis Performance Hall at 190 Alumni Mall. Convenient parking is available in the North End Parking Garage on Turner Street and in downtown Blacksburg. Find more parking details online.
If you are an individual with a disability and desire an accommodation, please contact Jonathan Boulter at least 10 days prior to the event at 540-231-5300 or email jboulter@vt.edu during regular business hours.
