Grand Prize winner of the 2025 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition, the Katarina String Quartet has quickly distinguished itself as one of North America’s most compelling young ensembles. The tightly-knit ensemble currently serves as the Graduate Resident String Quartet at The Juilliard School, where they explore all chamber music, from contemporary and canonized works to folk tunes. Known for their personable concert presentations and community leadership, they regularly perform in community centers around New York City as recipients of Juilliard’s Gluck Fellowship.

The ensemble’s 2025/26 season includes tours in the United States, United Arab Emirates, and Europe; performances in and around New York City, including at Carnegie Hall; and a residency at the Avaloch Farm Institute. The KSQ regularly collaborates with Refettorio Harlem, a free fine-dining restaurant focused on building community, rescuing food waste and alleviating food insecurity in the New York City community. They have also appeared at Music for Food, a concert series raising donations for local food shelters. In the competition world, the KSQ are recent ProQuartet Prize and Drimnin String Quartet Academy Prize winners of the 2025 Wigmore Hall String Quartet Competition; previously, they were Gold Medal and BIPOC prizewinner of the 2024 St. Paul Chamber Music Competition.

The KSQ was founded in 2022 at McGill University under the tutelage of André Roy. Since then, the Katarinas have worked extensively with members of the Juilliard, Alban Berg, Danel, Dover, and Pacifica Quartets, and have participated in prestigious programs such as IMS Prussia Cove and McGill International String Quartet Academy (MISQA).

The quartet takes its name from luthier Katarina Guarneri, wife of violin-maker Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesu. Scholars believe that she worked on her husband’s violins during the most productive years of his career. Inspired by Katarina, the KSQ celebrates the countless people and communities behind the canonized figureheads of classical music that contribute to the art we enjoy.