Diderot String Quartet—named after the eighteenth-century French philosopher and Boccherini enthusiast Denis Diderot—brings a fresh approach to works of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Called “emotional, riveting, and ultimately cathartic” (The Wall Street Journal), Diderot came together in 2012 after having first met at Oberlin Conservatory and The Juilliard School. The four musicians share a background in historical performance and a passion for the string quartet genre; they found the thrill of exploring the quartet repertoire on period instruments to be irresistible.
Recent and upcoming engagements for Diderot String Quartet include Chamber Music Pittsburgh, Lincoln Friends of Chamber Music (NE), Chamber Music Corvallis (Corvallis, OR), Connecticut Early Music Festival, Friends of Chamber Music Vancouver and Early Music Vancouver, Early Music Society of the Islands (Victoria, BC), Music in the Somerset Hills (Bernardsville, NJ), Rockefeller University’s Tri-I Noon Recital Series (New York, NY), Carmel Bach Festival (CA), Electric Earth Concerts (Peterborough, NH), Bitterroot Baroque (Hamilton, MT),Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series (Chicago), St. Cecilia Music Series (Austin, TX), and Music Before 1800 in New York. Diderot has also been featured in performance at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Toledo Museum of Art, and the Morgan Library in New York.
Diderot String Quartet enters its fifth year as Quartet in Residence at the Washington National Cathedral, having previously served as guest faculty for Oberlin’s Baroque Performance Institute. Other notable events include a collaboration with Harry Bicket on harpsichord, and the premiere of Diderot’s first commissioned work—Small Infinities by composer Lembit Beecher.