The New York-based group took home 'the largest prize for chamber music in the world'
New York’s Calidore Quartet took the grand prize at the inaugural M-Prize Chamber Arts Competition at the University of Michigan on 19 May. The foursome (pictured), comprising violinists Jeffrey Myers and Ryan Meehan, violist Jeremy Berry and cellist Estelle Choi, received $100,000 – according to the competition, the most substantial prize for chamber music in the world – as well as concert engagements. Second prize in the strings category ($7,000) went to the Verona Quartet, also based in New York, while the Rolston Quartet, currently based at Rice University in Texas, came third ($3,000).
Among their previous awards, the Calidore players have won the 2011 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition in South Bend, Indiana, and came second at the 2012 Hamburg International Chamber Music Competition. They came third in the same year's ARD Competition in Munich. Earlier this year the quartet received a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship, worth £20,000.
Announced in October 2015, the inaugural M-Prize received 172 applications from 13 countries, with 29 ensembles being invited to the final rounds in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The M-Prize jury included string players Rachel Barton Pine, Rohan De Silva, Anthony Elliott, Sylvie Gazeau and George Taylor.
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