Formosa Quartet to Open Nichols Concert Hall Presents Season
Violinist Jasmine Lin, an Evanston native and Music Institute faculty member, joins the quartet's Midwest return.
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Opening the Music Institute of Chicago's 2026–27 Nichols Concert Hall Presents season is the Formosa Quartet, winner of both the First Prize and Amadeus Prize at the Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition. The concert takes place Saturday, September 19 at 7:30 p.m. at Nichols Concert Hall, 1490 Chicago Ave., Evanston.
The program features Bartók's String Quartet No. 5 and a Formosa Quartet Set—an assortment of shorts from the ensemble's collection of folk, pop, jazz, and poetry arrangements. Curated especially for each concert, each Set, according to Formosa, “is like a flight of desserts after a main course, offering a chance for audiences to 'let their hair down,' tap their toes, and enjoy the string quartet medium in somewhat less-conventional contexts.”
The Formosa Quartet—violinist Jasmine Lin (an Evanston native and Music Institute faculty member), violinist David Bernat, violist Matthew Cohen, and cellist Deborah Pae—use the string quartet as a vehicle for advocacy, storytelling, and innovation. Their critically acclaimed performances at venues including the Library of Congress, the Chicago Cultural Center, the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center, the National Concert Hall in Taipei, and the Kammermusiksaal at the Berliner Philharmonie have forged uncharted musical terrain.
Formosa Quartet, photo by Jose Franch-Ballester. Formed in 2002 when the four Taiwanese-descended founders came together for a concert tour of Taiwan, the Formosa Quartet's cultural identity has since expanded to include broader American, pan-Asian, and Eastern European roots. Their name “Formosa” is taken in its most basic sense: Portuguese for “beautiful.” The founding members' interest in championing Taiwanese music and indigenous cultures has since expanded to include the exploration of the rich folk traditions and heritages in America today.
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