Email: AD at lampns.ca

Acclaimed as an “outstanding ensemble…cohesive yet full of temperament” (The New York Times), the Verona Quartet has firmly established itself amongst the most distinguished ensembles on the chamber music scene today. The group’s singular sense of purpose earned them Chamber Music America’s coveted 2020 Cleveland Quartet Award, and a reputation for its “bold interpretive strength, robust characterization and commanding resonance” (Calgary Herald). The Quartet serves on the faculty of the Oberlin College and Conservatory as the Quartet-in-Residence and as Artistic Directors at Nova Scotia’s Lunenburg Academy of Music Performance. In addition to its position at Oberlin, the Quartet also recently held recent multi-season residencies at the ENCORE Chamber Music Institute and North Carolina’s Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle. As committed advocates of diverse programming, the Verona Quartet curated the UpClose Chamber Music Series on behalf of the COT, electrifying audiences with their “sensational, powerhouse performance[s]” (Classical Voice America).

The Verona Quartet has appeared across four continents, captivating audiences at venues such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center (New York City), Kennedy Center, Library of Congress, the Smithsonian Institution (Washington, D.C.), Jordan Hall (Boston), Wigmore Hall (U.K.) and Melbourne Recital Hall (Australia), and has performed at festivals including the Santa Fe International Chamber Music Festival, La Jolla Summerfest, Chamber Music Northwest, Bravo! Vail, Texas Music Festival, Caramoor, Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival, Kneisel Hall, MISQA, and with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.

In the 2024-25 season, the Verona Quartet will debut at numerous prestigious series institutions including the Grand Teton Music Festival, Eastman School of Music, Peabody Institute of Music, Music Mondays in NYC, Lebanon Valley College, San Antonio Chamber Music Society, Camerata Musica in Washington state, and for the University of Buffalo’s celebrated Slee Beethoven String Quartet Cycle. The Quartet also returns to The New School of Music’s Schneider Series, Clemson University’ Utsey Chamber Music Series, Town Hall Seattle, University of Hartford’s Garmany Chamber Music Series, Chamber Music Society of Central Kentucky, and the Freer Gallery of Art, among others. Beyond their standalone performances this season, the Verona tours goes on tour with pipa virtuoso Wu Man, saxophonist Steven Banks —which includes a cutting edge commission by composer Christopher Theofanidis—and a string octet program with the Borromeo String Quartet. Last season, the quartet gave a noteworthy its successful first tour of England and performed at series including Clarion Concerts, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Brevard Music Center’s Parker Series, Chicago Chamber Music Society, Wooster Chamber Music Series, the Hilton Head Symphony’s BravoPiano! Festival, La Jolla Athanaeum, University of Southern California, Eureka Chamber Music Series, Honolulu Chamber Music Series, and Music Toronto.

A string quartet for the 21st century, the Verona Quartet champions the rich breadth of the string quartet repertoire from the time-honored canon through contemporary classics. Notable commissions and premieres include works by composers Julia Adolphe, Texu Kim and Sebastian Currier as well as Michael Gilbertson’s Pulitzer Prize-nominated Quartet. In 2023, the Quartet celebrated several world premieres including a work for string quartet, yangqin (Chinese dulcimer) and dancer by Cheng Jin Koh, commissioned by The Smithsonian Institution in honor of the centennial of the Freer Gallery of Art.

The Verona Quartet’s second album, SHATTER, debuted at #1 on the Billboard Traditional Classical Chart in the summer of 2023. SHATTER showcases works written for the Verona Quartet by American composers Julia Adolphe and Michael Gilbertson as well as Reena Esmail’s Ragamala, in collaboration with Hindustani vocalist Saili Oak. The Verona Quartet’s debut album, Diffusion, was praised by BBC Music Magazine for its "radiant glow" and Cleveland Classical for the “Verona’s technical precision, expressive freedom, and brilliant, dramatic phrasing”. The Quartet’s third album, composed of Ligeti’s complete string quartets, was released in December 2023 with Dynamic Records in celebration of the composer's centennial year.

In addition to promoting contemporary music, the Quartet strives for a dynamic, imaginative approach to collaboration and programming that champions cross-cultural and interdisciplinary enterprises. Recent collaborations include touring with Polish guitarist Łukasz Kuropaczewski and performances of Osvaldo Golijov’s seminal work Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind with clarinetists Alex Fiterstein and Todd Palmer. In the upcoming season, the Quartet looks forward to return collaborations with Alex Fiterstein and violist Atar Arad as well as a new project with pianist Eric Lu. Past projects include a live-performance art installation with artist Ana Prvački, performances with dancers from Brooklyn’s Dance Heginbotham, artistic exchanges with traditional Emirati poets in the UAE, and a collaboration with GRAMMY-winning folk trio I’m With Her.

Continuing in the lineage of their esteemed mentors the Cleveland, Juilliard and Pacifica Quartets, the Verona Quartet’s rapid rise to international prominence was fueled by top prize wins at the Wigmore Hall, Melbourne, M-Prize and Osaka International Chamber Music Competitions, as well as the 2015 Concert Artists Guild Competition.

The ensemble’s “vibrant, intelligent” (The New York Times) performances emanate from the spirit of storytelling; the Quartet believes that this transcends genre and therefore the name “Verona” pays tribute to William Shakespeare, one of the greatest storytellers of all time.

The Verona Quartet are D’Addario Artists and The Violin Channel Artists

Photo credit: Tanya Rosen-Jones

Email: education at lampns.ca

Anna Han has actively engaged with her communities in every chapter of her career as a creator, educator, and leader. She is dedicated to absorbing as many cultures as possible and creating bridges between people to facilitate new possibilities. As a concert pianist, she has performed solo, chamber, and concerto concerts around the world and collaborated with well over a hundred musicians in chamber ensembles. An alumnus of the Barenboim-Said Akademie in Berlin, Royal Academy of Music in London, and the Juilliard School in New York City, she brings a wide perspective of musical education systems and appreciation for diverse artistic traditions. She is a proud recipient of the Bita Cattelan Philanthropic Engagement Award awarded by the Concours Musical International de Montréal, the Juilliard School’s William Schuman Prize for outstanding achievement and leadership in music, the Juilliard Kovner Fellowship, a full-tuition and expenses scholarship awarded to students based on artistic and academic merit, as well as intellectual curiosity, commitment to the value of art in society, and potential for leadership.

 Anna has taught instrumental lessons to students from beginners to professionals, as well as conducted masterclasses for middle school, high school, and college students around the United States. She is on the faculty of Yellow Barn’s Young Artist Program in Vermont, where she coaches chamber musicians selected from annual live auditions in about a dozen cities around the world. Previously, she has coached chamber music groups of students aged 9-19 as a mentor for the Kneisel Hall Festival Maine Students Program and as a faculty member of the Music Academy of the West MERIT program in Santa Barbara, California. She has also worked as a collaborative pianist at both the Barenboim-Said Akademie and the Juilliard School, helping pre-college, college, and graduate students through rehearsals, recordings, lessons, and concerts.

Her experience as an educator includes classroom experience for theoretical musicianship subjects and interdisciplinary work. As a Juilliard Ear Training Teaching Fellow for two years, she taught 15-30 undergraduate and graduate lessons per term and conducting weekly coachings. As a Colloquium Peer Mentor, she worked with a faculty member to run weekly Colloquium classes designed to foster interdisciplinary relationships among first-year BM students, inspire arts development and citizenship-related discussions, and aid adjustment to college life. She was one of the founding administrators of the ArtSwap program, a club which facilitated lesson swaps and collaborations between students of different disciplines.

 Anna has a long and varied history of educational outreach, a vital component to both the current musical landscape as well as LAMP’s philosophy. She has been visiting schools to conduct outreach events since she was in high school, designing programs for every age from preschoolers to college students. During her studies at Juilliard, she won a position as a Gluck Community Service Fellow, giving interactive, interdisciplinary performances with an ensemble of two dancers, a violinist, a cellist, and a composer at hospitals, nursing homes, and alternative healthcare facilities around the city. As a Concert Fellow, she also taught music lessons to a class of fifth-graders at a local public school in conjunction with a series of Young Peoples’ Concerts.

 Anna Han first came to LAMP as a pianist doing a long-term residency during the Covid lockdown, and has since returned for multiple projects, including replacing another pianist on short notice on two occasions. She was appointed resident pianist in 2023, collaborating with multiple faculty members and students, teaching masterclasses, and performing her own solo programs. She began to aid on the administrative end after the founding artistic director Burt Wathen stepped down in February 2024. Leading up to her appointment as Education Director, she curated recital programs for all the 2024 LAMP fellows, organized and taught masterclasses for young local musicians, and directed LAMP’s first ever Community Education Academy, a week-long festival included free workshops and lectures exploring the musical process at all levels of experience, as well as chamber music concerts in three local venues.

Burt Wathen, was a founding member of Symphony Nova Scotia and as acting Music Director was responsible for bringing Maestro Georg Tintner to Halifax. He has taught and served on the boards of the National and Nova Scotia Youth Orchestras in Canada.

Burt served for ten years as Daniele Gatti’s Principal Viola in Bologna, and has served as Principal Viola for some of the world’s most revered conductors including: Riccardo Muti, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Roberto Abbado, Georges Pretre, Sir Neville Mariner, Georg Tintner, James Conlon, Charles Dutoit, Mstislav Rostropovic, Christian Thielemann, Vladimir Yurofsky, John Nelson, Gary Bertini, Michele Mariotti, and more.

As a viola soloist, Burt performed the Italian premier of Benjamin Britten’s Double Concerto for Violin, Viola and Orchestra (Willem Blockbergen violin, Teatro Comunale di Bologna).

In 1999 Burt was one of only two performers in Italy invited to participate in the Millennium Gala Concert in New York as a part of the Symphonicum World Orchestra, comprised only of principal players from orchestras around the world.

As a chamber musician, Burt has performed with Raina Kabaivanska, Walter Trampler, Chantal Juillet, William Tritt, Steve Dann, Andrew Dawes, Joel Quarrington, Phillip Djokic, Terrence Helmer, Rifka Golani, Vladimir Yurofsky, Shlomo Minz, the Gryphon Trio, Mark Fewer, and Walter Delahunt among others.

Burt has an extensive recording history which includes broadcasts by Radio Canada, CBC and RAI. He also served as a juror for international Viola competitions in Genova, Trieste, and Bologna, Italy.

LAMP exists today because of the many years of tireless work (not to mention blood, sweat, tears and love) Burt and his lovely wife Jane Theman gave to the organization and to the artists who were lucky enough to share in his dream.

Burt retired in February of 2024 and now lives year-round in his beloved Pesaro, Italy.