VC Artist Calidore String Quartet has released their new album "The Complete Beethoven String Quartets" on the Signum Classics label.

The release completes the ensemble's full recording cycle of Ludwig van Beethoven's sixteen string quartets, which were released in reverse chronological order beginning in February of 2023. In the 2024/2025 season, the Calidore String Quartet--consisting of violinists Jeffrey Myers and Ryan Meehan, violist Jeremy Berry, and cellist Estelle Choi--became the fourth quartet to perform the complete Beethoven cycle live with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. 

This box set, encompassing the Calidore Quartet's performances of Beethoven's complete string quartet output, represents the ensemble's fifteen years of development together. “Our interpretation speaks to the influences of our teachers and the great traditions associated with this repertoire, but also to that of our own generation, style, and experience," explained Myers. "These works remain so powerful for audiences today because of how they touch on the kinds of emotions and questions we all continue to wrestle with—identity, love, loss, and the search for meaning."

The quartet's shared musical evolution has continued even during the process of assembling the recording cycle, according to Myers. "Since recording and performing the cycle at Lincoln Center, our perspective has shifted; we’ve grown not only as musicians but as people. With time and new experiences, we’ve found different layers in the music, new connections to our world, and new ways of expressing what it means to us now. Each performance becomes a chance to honor the tradition we come from, but also to share a version of the music that feels fresh, immediate, and deeply connected to today.”

Hear the full album below:

 

Founded in 2010 at The Colburn School, the Calidore String Quartet has won top prizes at the ARD Munich, Hamburg, Fischoff, Coleman, Chesapeake, and Yellow Springs competitions, and they have received honors such as the Avery Fisher Career Grant and the Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award. The ensemble has performed at festivals and concert halls including Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, the BBC Proms, Verbier, Ravinia, and Music@Menlo. Currently the Distinguished String Quartet-in--Residence at the University of Delaware, the Calidore Quartet has previously held residencies at the University of Toronto, University of Michigan, and Stony Brook University. The ensemble's forthcoming recording project, to be released in 2026, is an all-American collection of string quartet music featuring music by Barber, Marsalis, Korngold, and John Williams.