Audience favorites return for 29th season
The Winter Chamber Music Festival returns to the Bienen School of Music for its 29th season beginning in January. Weekend concerts will be presented Jan. 9 to 23, 2026, with a special closing performance on Saturday, Feb. 14. This year’s festival features a dynamic mix of internationally celebrated quartets and distinguished Bienen School faculty artists.
Returning festival favorites include the Dudok Quartet Amsterdam, the Vertavo String Quartet and the two-time Grammy-nominated Dover Quartet. Rising star ensemble the Isidore String Quartet, last heard at the festival in 2023, also returns to the lineup.
All performances will take place in Pick-Staiger Concert Hall, 50 Arts Circle Drive on Northwestern’s Evanston campus. Subscriptions and single tickets are available by phone at 847-467-4000, online, or in person at Pick-Staiger Concert Hall during ticket office hours.
Program details follow:
Dudok Quartet Amsterdam
Friday, Jan. 9, 7:30 p.m.
The Dudok Quartet Amsterdam’s recent projects include the world premiere of Kaija Saariaho’s opera “Only the Sound Remains,” a collaboration with director Rosabel Huguet reimagining Beethoven’s Op. 132 String Quartet for children and the recording and release of the first installment of the complete Tchaikovsky string quartets. In October 2025, the quartet released its latest album “Terra Memoria,” featuring music of Dmitri Shostakovich and Kaija Saariaho.
Bienen Faculty and Guests
Sunday, Jan. 11, 3 p.m.
Bienen piano professor Christopher Guzman is joined by violinist and recent Los Angeles Philharmonic assistant concertmaster Akiko Tarumoto as well as Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) principal viola Teng Li and CSO assistant principal cello Kenneth Olsen.
Ariel Quartet
Friday, Jan. 16, 7:30 p.m.
The Ariel Quartet is a recipient of Chamber Music America's Cleveland Quartet Award and serves as Faculty Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music. Their 2025-26 season includes performances with Chamber Music in Oklahoma, The Perlman Music Program/Suncoast, Auburn University's Gogue Center, and The Crypt Sessions at New York's Church of the Intercession in Harlem.
Trio Seoul
Sunday, Jan. 18, 3 p.m.
Trio Seoul was founded in 2022 by Bienen School associate professor of violin Jinjoo Cho, pianist Kyu Yeon Kim and cellist and Bienen alumnus Brannon Cho. The trio regularly collaborates with artists in multiple fields, including composers, choreographers, writers and visual artists, and its members have appeared as soloists with celebrated orchestras throughout the world.
Isidore String Quartet
Friday, Jan. 23, 7:30 p.m.
The Isidore String Quartet was formed in 2019 at the Juilliard School. Since that time, the quartet has appeared in major series throughout North America, collaborating with eminent performers including James Ehnes, Jeremy Denk, Shai Wosner and Jon Nakamatsu. In February 2026, they will premiere a new string quartet written for them by Billy Childs.
Dover Quartet
Saturday, Feb. 14, 7:30 p.m.
The two-time Grammy-nominated Dover Quartet’s 2025-26 season features performances with Marc-André Hamelin and Edgar Meyer, as well as appearances at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center and Konzerthaus Berlin.