Internationally recognized for their “fearless, yet probingly beautiful” (The Strad) performances, the GRAMMY® Award-winning Parker Quartet has distinguished itself as one of the preeminent ensembles of its generation, dedicated purely to the sound and depth of their music. Hailed as “a knockout performer” by The Times, Singaporean-British mezzo Fleur Barron is a passionate interpreter of opera, symphonic works and chamber music.
The concert is followed by a reception where you can meet the artists.
All are encouraged to attend.
The program will be announced closer to the concert date.
The program notes will be provided closer to the concert date.
Parker Quartet
Daniel Chong, violin | Ken Hamao, violin | Jessica Bodner, viola | Kee-Hyun Kim, cello
Internationally recognized for their “fearless, yet probingly beautiful” (The Strad) performances, the Grammy Award-winning Parker Quartet has distinguished itself as one of the preeminent ensembles of its generation, dedicated purely to the sound and depth of their music. They are renowned for their fresh and unique approach to the great classics while being passionate ambassadors for music of our time. Inspired performances and exceptional musicianship are hallmarks of the Quartet, having appeared at the world’s most illustrious venues since its founding in 2002.
Recent seasons have included performances around North America and Europe, including Wigmore Hall, Konzerthaus Berlin, Music Toronto, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Strathmore, San Antonio Chamber Music Society, University of Chicago, the Schubert Club, 92nd Street Y, Da Camera of Houston, UCLA’s Clark Library, and Kansas City’s Friends of Chamber Music. Recent festival appearances include Big Ears, Norfolk, Lake Champlain, Bridgehampton, Skaneateles, San Miguel de Allende, and at the Banff Centre.
The Quartet’s 2024-25 season includes concerts at Carnegie Hall and Philadelphia Chamber Music Society. Additionally, the Quartet will work with and record works by Paola Prestini, as well as curate a project which includes a newly commissioned quintet by Anthony Cheung for the Quartet and mezzo-soprano Fleur Barron. This project centers on themes of nature and heritage while weaving poetry and music throughout the program.
Throughout the 2022-23 season the quartet celebrated their 20th anniversary with The Beethoven Project, a multi-faceted initiative which included performances of the complete cycle of Beethoven’s string quartets; the commissioning of six composers to write encores inspired by Beethoven’s quartets; the creation of a new video library spotlighting each Beethoven quartet; and bringing Beethoven’s music to non-traditional venues around the Quartet’s home base of Boston, including homeless shelters and youth programs.
The Quartet is committed to working with composers of today — recent commissions include works by Augusta Read Thomas, Felipe Lara, Jaehyuck Choi, Zosha di Castri, Paul Wiancko, Anthony Cheung, Wang Lu, Michi Wiancko, Sky Macklay, and Jeremy Gill. Celebrating the process of creation, the Quartet recorded three new commissions by Kate Soper, Oscar Bettison, and Vijay Iyer as part of Miller Theatre’s Mission: Commission podcast.
The Quartet regularly collaborates with a diverse range of artists, which have included pianists Menahem Pressler, Anne-Marie McDermott, Orion Weiss, Shai Wosner, Billy Childs, and Vijay Iyer; clarinetist and composer Jörg Widmann; clarinetists Anthony McGill and Charles Neidich; flutist Claire Chase; and violist Kim Kashkashian, featured on their recent Dvořák recording. The Quartet also continues to be a strong supporter of Kashkashian’s project Music for Food, participating in concerts throughout the United States for the benefit of various food banks and shelters.
Recording projects continue to be an important facet of the Quartet’s artistic output. Described by Gramophone Magazine as a ”string quartet defined by virtuosity so agile that it’s indistinguishable from the process of emotional expression,” their newest release for ECM Records features Dvořák’s Viola Quintet as well as György Kurtág’s Six Moments Musicaux and Officium breve in memoriam. The Strad also declared the album as “nothing short of astonishing.” Under the auspices of the Monte Carlo Festival Printemps des Arts, they recorded a disc of three Beethoven quartets, of which Diapason “admired the group’s fearlessness, exceptional control, and attention to detail.” The Quartet can also be heard playing Mendelssohn on Nimbus Records, Bartók on Zig-Zag Territoires, and the complete Ligeti Quartets on Naxos, for which they won a Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance.
The members of the Parker Quartet serve as Professors of the Practice and Blodgett Artists-in-Residence at Harvard University’s Department of Music. The Quartet also holds visiting residencies at the University of South Carolina and Walnut Hill School for the Arts.
Founded and currently based in Boston, the Parker Quartet’s numerous honors include winning the Concert Artists Guild Competition, the Grand Prix and Mozart Prize at France’s Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition, and Chamber Music America’s prestigious Cleveland Quartet Award.
Fleur Barron
Hailed as “a knockout performer” by The Times, Singaporean-British mezzo Fleur Barron is a 2025 GRAMMY Award winner for her performance of the title role in Kaija Saariaho’s opera “Adriana Mater” with the San Francisco Symphony Symphony and Esa-Pekka Salonen on the Deutsche Grammophon label. Fleur is a passionate interpreter of opera, chamber music, and concert works ranging from the baroque to the contemporary. She is currently Artistic Partner of the Orquesta Sinfonica del Principado de Asturias in Oviedo, for which she will curate/perform multiple projects across several seasons. Fleur is mentored by Barbara Hannigan.
The 2024-2025 season sees Fleur emerge as an exciting, leading voice in Mahlerian repertoire across a series of important symphonic debuts: Das Lied von der Erde with Daniel Harding and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra on tour across Germany, with Harding and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Stockholm and on tour to Spain, with Kent Nagano and the Hamburg Staatsorchester at the Elbphilharmonie, and at the Oregon Bach Festival; Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn with Nathalie Stutzmann and the Atlanta Symphony; Mahler Symphony no.2 with the Orquesta de Valencia, the Rückert Lieder with PhilZuid, and the Kindertotenlieder at Het Concertgebouw’s Mahler Festival with Julius Drake. Other orchestral engagements include the Season Opening concert of the Rundfunk Sinfonie Orchester Berlin (RSB) under Vladimir Jurowski at the Berlin Philharmonie in Schönberg’s atonal song cycle “Four Orchestral Songs op.22”; Lieberson’s Neruda Songs with the Hawaii Symphony; Saariaho’s Adriana Songs with the Turku Philharmonic, and orchestrated Schubert songs with the Orquesta Sinfonica del Principado de Asturias. Fleur takes on three new opera roles: Concepcion in Ravel’s L’Heure Espagnole with the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra under Ludovic Morlot, as well as a studio recording; Comrade Chin/Shu Fang in Huang Ruo’s M. Butterfly at the Barbican, directed by Jim Robinson, and Galatea in Handel’s Aci, Galatea e Polifemo with La Nuova Musica at Wigmore Hall. 24/25 sees the release of Fleur’s debut orchestral disc with the Barcelona Symphony and Ludvoic Morlot, featuring Ravel’s Schéhérazade and Trois Poèmes de Mallarmé. A celebrated recitalist, this season Fleur undertakes a 6-city U.S. recital tour with pianist Kunal Lahiry, including her Carnegie Hall debut, as well as a U.S. recital tour with the Parker Quartet. She also joins regular collaborator Julius Drake for concerts at Wigmore Hall, Amsterdam, Stuttgart, Madrid, Manchester and Oviedo. Fleur also teachers a series of masterclasses at institutions such as Harvard, Sibelius Academy Helsinki, Royal Northern College of Music, Boston University, Manhattan School of Music, among others.
Fleur began her 2023-2024 season with a return to the London Symphony Orchestra, where she received critical acclaim in their Season Opening Concerts at the Barbican in works by Vivier and Stravinsky under the baton of Barbara Hannigan. The autumn of 2023 saw the release on Pentatone Records of her performance in the title role in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas with La Nuova Musica, and she joined the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra and conductor Ludovic Morlot for performances of Shéhérazade and Montsalvatge’s Cinco Canciones Negras at L’Auditori Barcelona and on tour to Hamburg and Stockholm. Further orchestral engagements included Mahler’s Symphony no.3 with the Czech Philharmonic and Semyon Bychkov, both Das Lied von der Erde and Mahler Symphony no.2 with Orquesta Sinfónica del Principado de Asturias, and Freya Waley-Cohen’s Spell Book with the Manchester Collective at the Barbican. In 23/24 Fleur also debuted two opera roles: Penelope in Monteverdi’s Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria on tour with baroque ensemble I Gemelli; and multiple roles in George Benjamin’s two-person opera Into the Little Hill with the Staatsoper Berlin at the Boulez Saal. On the recital platform, Fleur teamed up with regular partner Julius Drake for a series of concerts in the U.S. and Europe, returned to the 92 Street Y with Myra Huang, and made multiple appearances at Wigmore Hall with string ensembles O/Modernt and 12 Ensemble. Fleur was also the curator of OSPA’s East-West Fest in April 2024, featuring symphonic programs, chamber music, late-night concerts and community engagement over two weekends in Oviedo and Gijon.
Highlights of recent seasons include the title role of Kaija Saariaho’s opera Adriana Mater with the San Francisco Symphony, Ottavia in L’Incoronazione di Poppea at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, la Zelatrice in Suor Angelica with the Berlin Philharmonic under Kirill Petrenko, Tchaikovsky’s Olga and Paulina, at Garsington Opera and Opera de Toulon, and her debut in the title role of Carmen for Arizona Opera; concerts with the Munich Philharmonic under Barbara Hannigan, the BBCSO, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Malaysian Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, the Göteborgs Symfoniker, the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, the Balthasar Neumann Ensemble, the Slovenian Philharmonic and the Orquesta Sinfonica del Principado de Asturias as well as opera roles with the Aix-en-Provence Festival, Opéra de Monte-Carlo, La Monnaie/de Munt, Garsington Opera, Opéra National de Montpellier, Opéra National du Rhin and Cape Town Opera.
Fleur is committed to exploring the many ways music can facilitate cross-cultural dialogue and healing. She is passionate about curating inclusive chamber music programming that amplifies the voices of diverse communities. An active mentor and educator, Fleur has led vocal masterclasses and seminars at Manhattan School of Music, Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia, Royal Academy of Music, the Malaysian Philharmonic, Temple University, and King’s College London, and has also mentored young musicians privately. Born to a British father and Singaporean mother in Northern Ireland, Fleur grew up in the Far East and has also spent considerable time in New York and the U.K. She is currently based in London.
Fleur holds a B.A. in Comparative Literature with highest honours from Columbia University and a Masters in Vocal Performance from Manhattan School of Music.
