ENSEMBLE · STRING QUARTET
Attacca Quartet
2x Grammy
Award-winning ensemble Platoon
Exclusive Recording Artist Dedicatees
New works by Adams, Shaw, Lang, Ortiz & more ABOUT
The two-time Grammy Award-winning Attacca Quartet is recognized and acclaimed as one of the most versatile and outstanding ensembles of the moment — a true quartet for modern times. Gliding through traditional classical repertoire to electronica, video game music, and contemporary collaborations, they are one of the world's most innovative and respected ensembles.
In 2021, the quartet released two albums that embody their redefinition of what a string quartet can be. The first Album, Real Life, featuring guest artists such as TokiMONSTA, Daedalus, and Anne Müller, was followed up by Of all Joys, which features works by Philip Glass, Arvo Pärt, and music of the Renaissance period. Passionate advocates of contemporary repertoire, the quartet is dedicated to presenting and recording new works. Their 2019 release Orange, in collaboration with Caroline Shaw, saw them win the 2020 Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance, with their follow-up album Evergreen winning the 2023 award in the same category. The quartet continues to perform in the world's best venues and festivals.
Recent highlights include Lincoln Center's White Light Festival and Miller Theatre, Carnegie Hall, Phillips Collection, Chamber Music Detroit, Chamber Music Austin and Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston as well as the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Wigmore Hall, Ojai Festival, BRIC Arts and Big Ears Festival. Outside of the US, performances include Kings Place and in Oslo at the Vertavo Haydn Festival as well as performances at Gothenburg Konserthuset, MITO Settembre Festival in Italy, Sociedad Filarmónica de Bilbao, Strijkkwartet Biennale Amsterdam, Strings of Autumn Festival Prague, Thüringer Bachwochen, Sala São Paulo in Brazil, Fundación Beethoven in Chile, National Theatre of Panamá, and Teatro Mayor in Bogota. They have also soloed with the Nagoya Philharmonic in Japan, the National Orchestra of Catalunya at the Palau in Barcelona, the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, and the Colombian National Orchestra in Bogota.
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In addition to the quartet's traditional concert stage work, they were the first to collaborate with Billie Eilish and FINNEAS on their recent album and also performed with the duo on Saturday Night Live. As featured Artists, the Attacca Quartet can be heard on the soundtrack of the upcoming Ken Burns Documentary Leonardo da Vinci (soundtrack by Caroline Shaw) and the soundtrack for the film We Grown Now (directed by Minhal Baig and soundtrack by Jay Wadley).
In the 2025-26 season, the Attacca Quartet brings its signature energy and artistry to stages across the United States, performing for some of the nation's premier chamber music organizations. The ensemble will appear with San Francisco Performances, The Phillips Collection, the Howland Chamber Music Circle, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the Center for the Art of Performance in Los Angeles, and the Wisconsin Union Theater.
The founding members of the Attacca Quartet met while all studying at the Juilliard School in the early 2000s and they made their professional debut at Carnegie Hall in 2003. Other accolades include First Prize at the 7th Osaka International Chamber Music Competition, the Top Prize and Listeners' Choice award winners for the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition, and Grand Prize Winners of the 60th annual Coleman Chamber Ensemble Competition.
The Attacca Quartet has engaged in extensive educational and community engagement projects, serving as guest artists and teaching fellows at the Lincoln Center Institute, University of Texas, Juilliard School, the Boston University Tanglewood Institute, and Bravo! Vail among others. They are expert programmers and communicators, and beautifully mix existing works with those by living composers.
Visit attaccaquartet.com for more information.
PRESS & REVIEWS
What the critics say
“Their playing is exuberant, funky and more exactingly nuanced.”
— The New York Times
“They may be a relatively young ensemble, but already they come very close to epitomizing the string quartet ideal: four strikingly individual players with the ability to speak eloquently in one voice.”
— The Washington Post
“We're living in a golden age of string quartets…It's hard to disagree when you hear the vibrant young players in New York's Attacca Quartet.”
— NPR
VIDEOS
Videos
2026-27
Programs & Repertoire
Program One
- Haydn Op. 50, No. 5 'The Dream'
- David Lang Daisy
- Intermission
- Nocturne Suite (arr. Attacca, Poulenc & Chopin)
- Bartók String Quartet No. 4 (or Britten: String Quartet No. 2)
Program Two
- Paul Wiancko Benkei's Standing Death
- Michael Ippolito Smoke Rings
- Gabriel Kahane Klee
- Intermission
- Debussy String Quartet in G minor, Op. 10
Program Three
- Schubert String Quartet No. 14 'Death and the Maiden'
- Intermission
- Gabriela Ortiz Altar de Muertos
Program Four
Attacca Quartet + Caroline Shaw
An evening of Shaw's quartets and songs.
Program Five
Attacca Quartet + Gabriel Kahane
Kahane's string quartet plus a set of his original songs in collaboration.
Program One
Weird Grooves
A genre-spanning set — Couperin (arr. Kahane), Tigran Hamasyan, Michael Ippolito, Radiohead, Caroline Shaw, and Junun — paired with Beethoven's Op. 127 (or, without intermission, the Grosse Fuge, Op. 133).
Program Two
- Beethoven Op. 18, No. 1
- Paul Wiancko Benkei's Standing Death
- Intermission
- Gabriela Ortiz Altar de Muertos
Program Three
Choose Your Own All-Beethoven
A custom all-Beethoven program drawn from Opp. 18, 59 'Razumovsky', 74 'Harp', 127, 131, and the Grosse Fuge.
On Stage
Featured Projects
Attacca Quartet & Caroline Shaw
String Quartet
The Attacca Quartet presents a special collaboration with composer and vocalist Caroline Shaw, whose albums with the quartet — Orange and Evergreen — have each won the Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance. Together they bring Shaw's distinctive, genre-crossing voice to the concert stage.
Gabriel Kahane & Attacca Quartet
Voice and String Quartet
Singer-songwriter and composer Gabriel Kahane joins the Attacca Quartet for a collaborative program that brings together Kahane's genre-spanning songwriting and the quartet's chamber artistry — a meeting of two deeply soulful musical voices.
Note to a Friend
String Quartet
A 60-minute chamber opera by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang, commissioned by the Japan Society and performed by the Attacca Quartet with vocalist Theo Bleckmann. The monodrama reimagines three texts by the Japanese novelist Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, addressing themes of death, love, family, and loss. The world premiere was directed by Yoshi Oida, a longtime member of Peter Brook's theater company, as part of the PROTOTYPE Festival 2023.