Juilliard Names Ivalas Quartet as New Graduate Resident String Quartet

“We are excited to have the Ivalas Quartet come to Juilliard this year and share their artistry with our audiences,” said David Serkin Ludwig, dean and director of Juilliard’s Music Division. “The Ivalas arrives at the school as an already accomplished ensemble that has distinguished itself on world stages, and they share Juilliard’s values of inclusivity, artistic curiosity, and an unwavering commitment to excellence in performance. We look forward to welcoming them into our school community, and I thank the Juilliard String Quartet for their excellent work in selecting Ivalas as our next graduate string quartet in residence.”

As Lisa Arnhold Fellows at Juilliard, the members of the Ivalas Quartet will perform an annual New York recital, which takes place at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall in 2023; coach regularly with the Juilliard String Quartet (JSQ); and participate in the annual Juilliard String Quartet Seminar. They will also assist the JSQ with its ensemble and chamber music instruction, coach other student ensembles, and assist in the freshman-year String Quartet Survey class. 

Juilliard quartet residencies are for two years. Upon successful completion of the residency, quartet members are awarded Artist Diplomas in String Quartet Studies at Juilliard. The Ulysses Quartet recently completed its residence at Juilliard. Other Juilliard graduate string quartets in residence have included the Aeolus, Afiara, Argus, Attacca, Avalon, Biava, Calder, Cassatt, Chiara, Corigliano, Colorado, Essex, Lark, Maia, Magellan (now the Whitman String Quartet), Miró, St. Lawrence, Shanghai, and Verona. 

Juilliard’s graduate resident string quartet is supported by the Arnhold Foundation and the George L. Shields Foundation.

About the Ivalas Quartet
Composed of violinists Reuben Kebede and Tiani Butts, violist Aimée McAnulty, and cellist Pedro Sánchez, the Ivalas Quartet has been changing the face of classical music since its inception at the University of Michigan in 2017. Dedicated to the celebration of BIPOC voices, Ivalas seeks to disrupt the classical music world by continuously spotlighting BIPOC composers such as Jessie Montgomery, Daniel Bernard Roumain, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, and Eleanor Alberga. The Ivalas Quartet had the pleasure of performing George Walker’s Lyric for Strings at Carnegie Hall in January 2020. Later that year, the quartet worked in collaboration with Walker’s son to program his String Quartet No. 1 with Friends of Chamber Music Denver and the Colorado Music Festival. In 2021, the quartet created the first recording of Carlos Simon’s Warmth From Other Suns for string quartet under Lara Downes’ digital label Rising Sun Music. 

The Ivalas Quartet spent 2019 to 2022 in residence at the University of Colorado-Boulder under the mentorship of the Takács Quartet. During the summer seasons, Ivalas worked with the Ying Quartet at the Bowdoin International Music Festival in 2018 and the Pacifica, American, and Escher quartets at the Aspen Music Festival in 2019. Ivalas has also spent the past few summers at the Great Lakes Music Festival working with the Emerson Quartet and had the opportunity to perform Mendelssohn’s String Quintet No. 2 in concert with Eugene Drucker in 2019. The quartet has additionally been coached by the St. Lawrence String Quartet, the Calidore String Quartet, Brooklyn Rider, Peter Oundjian, Paul Katz, Ayano Ninomiya, Masumi Rostad, Kirsten Docter, Jeffrey Zeigler, Danielle Belen, Richard Aaron, Kathryn Votapek, and Mikhail Kopelman, and worked with composers Samuel Adler, Carlos Simon, and Missy Mazzoli.
 
Ivalas has performed in various concert series including Detroit’s WRCJ Classical Brunch, the inaugural Detroit Music Weekend, the Crested Butte Music Festival, the Great Lakes Center for the Arts, and CU Presents concert series, where the quartet performed alongside the Takács Quartet in 2020. Winners of the 2019 WDAV Young Artist Chamber Music Competition in Davidson, North Carolina, the Ivalas Quartet also performed in the Davidson College concert series and received the grand prize at the 2022 Coltman Music Competition in Austin, Texas. This past spring, Ivalas performed in Community Concerts at Second in Baltimore. The 2022 summer season includede residencies at the Walla Walla Chamber Music Festival, Madeline Island Chamber Music, and Music in the Vineyards in Napa Valley, California. The quartet is honored to be the Ernst Stiefel String Quartet in Residence at Caramoor for the 2022-23 season and is looking forward to being presented by Schneider Concerts this fall.

The members of the Ivalas Quartet have a shared dedication to their roles as educators. Through the Sphinx Organization, Ivalas has presented educational programming in the metro Detroit area, with an emphasis on community engagement in schools with Black and Latinx communities. In Colorado, the members have developed a partnership with El Sistema Colorado and have been a part of the Aspen Music Festival Musical Connections program. The quartet has also been in residence at the University of Northern Iowa in early 2020 and at the University of Central Arkansas in fall 2021.

Ivalas would like to extend a special thank you to the following organizations and individuals for their generous support of the quartet’s endeavors through travel funding and scholarships: the Takács Society; the University of Colorado—Boulder; the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre and Dance; Center Stage Strings; the Sphinx Organization; EXCEL; the Mandell Collection of Southern California; and Maurice Binkow and Freyja Harris at the SMTD Office of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion.

Violinist Reuben Kebede has been heard in recital across the U.S., Europe, and China. He received an Artist Diploma in string quartet performance from CU Boulder under the tutelage of Edward Dusinberre and the members of the Takács Quartet. Previously, he studied with Danielle Belen at the University of Michigan, where he served as concertmaster of both university orchestras, and with Sarah Plum at Drake University. 

Violinist Tiani Butts is a passionate solo and chamber musician who strives to use the arts to encourage and inspire young students from all backgrounds. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings and a dual master’s degree in violin performance and chamber music from the University of Michigan.

Argentine-American violist Aimée McAnulty was born and raised in Southern California. She joined Ivalas in 2019 after graduating from Yizhak Schotten’s studio at the University of Michigan. She earned her Artist Diploma in String Quartet at the University of Colorado—Boulder, studying with the Takács Quartet and violists Erika Eckert and Richard O’Neill. 

Born in Caracas, Venezuela, Pedro Sánchez attended the Emil Friedman Conservatory and School and was trained through El Sistema. In the United States, he studied at Interlochen Arts Academy, the Eastman School of Music, the University of Michigan, and the University of Colorado—Boulder. He has studied with Cesar Noguera, Crispin Campbell, Alan Harris, Richard Aaron, Anthony Elliott, and András Fejér of the Takács Quartet.

About The Juilliard School
Founded in 1905, The Juilliard School is a world leader in performing arts education. The school’s mission is to provide the highest caliber of artistic education for gifted musicians, dancers, and actors, composers, choreographers, and playwrights from around the world so that they may achieve their fullest potential as artists, leaders, and global citizens. Juilliard is guided in all its work by the core values of excellence; creativity; and equity, diversity, inclusion, and belonging (EDIB). 
Located at Lincoln Center in New York City, Juilliard offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in dance, drama (acting and playwriting), and music (classical, jazz, historical performance, and vocal arts). Currently more than 800 artists from 43 states and 44 countries and regions are enrolled in Juilliard’s College Division, where they appear in more than 700 annual performances in the school’s five theaters; at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully and David Geffen halls and at Carnegie Hall; as well as at other venues around New York City, the country, and the world. The continuum of learning at Juilliard also includes nearly 400 students from elementary through high school enrolled in the Preparatory Division, including its Music Advancement Program (MAP), which serves students from diverse backgrounds often underrepresented in the classical music field. More than 800 students are enrolled in Juilliard Extension, the flagship continuing education program taught both in person and remotely by a dedicated faculty of performers, creators, and scholars. Beyond its New York campus, Juilliard is defining new directions in performing arts education for a range of learners and enthusiasts through a global K-12 educational curricula and graduate studies at The Tianjin Juilliard School in China.