Vega Quartet announces new violist

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The Vega Quartet has announced the appointment of Joseph Skerik as its new violist. Skerik succeeds founding violist Yinzi Kong, who leaves the quartet to follow other musical pursuits.

Skerik studied at the Yale School of Music, the Cleveland Institute, the Paris Conservatory and Interlochen Arts Academy. He has performed at festivals including the Ravinia Institute, Heifetz Chamber Music Seminar, Highlands-Cashiers Festival, Perlman Music Program, Aspen Music Festival, and the Lake George Music Festival.

His accolades include being a Young Arts Merit Violist, a prize winner at the American Viola Society Competition and was most recently awarded third prize at the Oskar Nedbal Viola Competition in Prague. He is the co-founder of Viridian Strings, a chamber music series in Northwest Lower Michigan, and recently appeared at the 2023 Vivace Music Foundation. 

The Vega Quartet, comprising violinists Emily Daggett Smith and Jessica Shuang Wu, cellist Guang Wang, plus Skerik, serves as quartet in residence at Emory University in Atlanta, GA. Dedicated to bringing chamber music to a new generation of music lovers, the residency brings performance into the classroom, collaborating with academic professors to create interdisciplinary parallels and conversations, as well as to the local community through the Emory Youth Chamber Music Program.

The quartet has won numerous international awards, including at the Bordeaux String Quartet Competition, as well as top prizes from the Coleman Chamber Ensemble Competition, the Carmel Chamber Music Competition, and the National Society of Arts and Letters String Quartet Competition.

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