Quartet San Francisco perform with Tango dancers Sandor and Parissa at Berea College Oct. 25

Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Quartet San Francisco is Jeremy Cohen and Kayo Miki, violinists, Emily Onderdonk, violist, and Joel Cohen, cellist.

“Quartet San Francisco was born out of the desire to create a genre of string chamber literature which gathers its material from popular music elements of recent decades while maintaining the integrity and spirit of traditional chamber music,” says Cohen.  The result is a string quartet whose members have come together with the unified purpose of performing multiple styles of interesting and engaging music — from tango to jazz, classical to Latin, contemporary to world music — using the techniques and performance practices authentic to each style.

Since its concert debut in 2001, Quartet San Francisco has offered its unique fare of musical styles to local, national and international audiences.  In 2002, the quartet began its ongoing collaboration with Sandor and Parissa.

In 2004 Quartet San Francisco was awarded both the Special Prize and the Grand Prize at the New York City International Tango Competition, sponsored by the Argentine Consulate. Their award included five performances in Buenos Aires and New York in the 2004-2005 season.  In 2007, the ensemble was a double Grammy nominee for their latest release, “Látigo.”

For more, visit www.quartetsanfrancisco.com  For a complete listing of Berea College Convocations, including other Stephenson Memorial Concerts, visit www.berea.edu/convocations