The Bergamot Quartet is dedicated to cultivating music for string quartet and beyond as a living and blooming entity, taking a format with a deeply important history in western classical music and continually expanding its limits. They work primarily with living composers, with a priority given to music by women, and aim to place this new, genre-bending music in meaningful dialogue with the histories that precede it. Started in 2016 and based in Baltimore, the group is regularly featured on the Evolution Series and has also participated in many local projects, including the premiere of Oscar Bettison’s Presence of Absence for Ensemble Klang + string quartet, George Crumb’s Black Angels everywhere from a living room in South Baltimore to the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage, and a residency at Towson University. This season includes a visit to El Paso, TX for a weeklong residency, a series of workshops and performances at UMBC and University of Baltimore, and participation in TRIADS: Arrangements in Sight and Sound, a visual and sonic installation conceptualized by MICA student Hannah Davis. They have completed programs at the Banff Center for the Arts, Quatuor Diotima’s Academy in France, and the Next Festival of Emerging Artists, and all studied at the Peabody Conservatory.

The Bergamot Quartet is Ledah Finck and Sarah Thomas, violins; Amy Tan, viola; and Irene Han, cello.

Terry Sweeney is an avid chamber musician and collaborator. Terry is a member of Sandbox Percussion, HOWL, The Percussion Collective, and quaquaqua. With Sandbox, Terry has performed over 150 concerts across the United States. Some recent projects with Sandbox include QUIXOTE – a multi-year collaboration with the theatrical ensemble HOWL, a world premiere with Andy Akiho and The Industry opera company in Los Angeles, a collaboration with choreographer Brian Brooks and his dance company, and the world premiere of a concerto by Viet Cuong with the Albany Symphony.

As an educator, Terry is currently a visiting artist at UMass Amherst, directs the percussion studies for the Yellow Barn Young Artist Program, teaches at the Dwight School in Manhattan, and co-directs the NYU-Sandbox Seminar. Terry holds degrees from the Peabody Conservatory and the Yale School of Music and endorses Vic Firth sticks and mallets, Remo drumheads, Pearl/Adams Musical Instruments, Black Swamp accessories, and Zildjian Cymbals.