Press Release

June 21, 2024

For Immediate Release

Cassatt String Quartet announces violist Emily Brandenburg to join in Fall 2024

Cassatt String Quartet celebrates 40th anniversary in 2024-25 season

The violist Emily Brandenburg joins the Cassatt String Quartet beginning in Fall 2024.

"Muneko, Jennifer, and I are overjoyed to welcome Emily Brandenburg to the Cassatt Quartet as our new violist, and to look forward to the years of shared adventures and music-making ahead! Emily brings to the CSQ her extraordinary experience as a lifelong chamber musician and an especially devoted quartet player; she balances a brilliant analytical mind with a rich, compelling, unusual voice that is deeply layered and beautiful," says CSQ cellist Gwen Krosnick.

Emily Brandenburg says “I am thrilled to be joining the Cassatt String Quartet as their new violist. I have admired the quartet for their artistry, and for their long standing commitment to new music, working hand-in-hand with a diverse array of composers. I look forward to beginning this chapter with them as they enter their 40th season and to all the years of memories and music making to come." 

Check out the July issue of Strings Magazine for a feature article about the Cassatt String Quartet's process of chosing a new member

Ms. Brandenburg holds degrees from Yale, New England Conservatory, and McDuffie Center for Strings at Mercer University. She was previously artist-in-residence at the University of Evansville in Indiana where she was principal viola of Evansville Philharmonic and a member of the Eykamp String Quartet. 



The announcement follows the departure of violist Rosemary Nelis, who joined the group in 2022, and is leaving to focus on other projects.

The Cassatt String Quartet celebrates its 40th anniversary in 2024-2025 with premieres by Joan Tower, Victoria Bond, Mari Kimura and Shirish Korde, all written for the group. The season includes a tour of Italy with guitarist Eliot Fisk, concerts across the United States, teaching residencies at major universities and conservatories, the CSQ's bi-annual Cassatt in the Basin residency in West Texas, and the Seal Bay Festival in Maine.

Hailed for its “mighty rapport and relentless commitment,” the New York City-based Cassatt String Quartet has performed throughout the world since 1985, with appearances at Alice Tully Hall and Weill Recital Hall; Tanglewood Music Center; the Kennedy Center; Théâtre des Champs-Élysées; Centro National de las Artes; Maeda Hall; and Beijing’s Central Conservatory. The Quartet’s prolific discography – featured three times in Alex Ross’s “10 Best Classical Recordings” column in The New Yorker – includes over forty recordings, for the Koch, Naxos, New World, Point, CRI, Tzadik, and Albany labels. The CSQ is named for the American Impressionist painter Mary Cassatt.

Photos: Dario Acosta