Rosamunde String Quartet

The Rosamunde String Quartet is comprised of musicians of some of the world’s leading orchestras: Noah Bendix-Balgley, first concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic; Shanshan Yao, member of the Kammerakademie Potsdam and former violinist in the New York Philharmonic; Teng Li, principal viola of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra; and Nathan Vickery, cellist in the New York Philharmonic. Celebrated for its “uniformly rich sound from top to bottom” (Cleveland Classical), the quartet formed in 2015 as a passion project of its all-star members. By uniting their experiences as internationally touring soloists and orchestra musicians, they create a distinctive sound and unanimity of expression.

The quartet’s 2024–25 season included performances at Curtis Institute of Music and University Musical Society at the University of Michigan. Recent seasons have included appearances in Asheville, Bloomington, Boston, Cincinnati, Cleveland, New York City, Pittsburgh, Washington, D.C, and Toronto. The group has performed collaboratively with artists such as Benjamin Hochman and Peter Wiley. Masterclasses and residencies at music schools and festivals such as Curtis, Carnegie Mellon University, Cleveland Institute of Music, Morningside Music Bridge, and the University of Toronto are an important part of the quartet’s touring activities.

The Rosamunde String Quartet’s members studied at renowned schools including Curtis Institute of Music, Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, and the Juilliard School.

NOAH BENDIX-BALGLEY, violin

Noah Bendix-Balgley enjoys a wide-ranging musical life as a violinist. He is First Concertmaster of the Berliner Philharmoniker and tours both as a soloist and as a chamber musician. His clear and heartfelt personal sound has moved listeners around the world.

Noah appears frequently as soloist with leading international orchestras, as well as in recital at the world’s finest concert halls. Recent highlights include his concerto debut at Carnegie Hall as the featured soloist on the Berliner Philharmoniker USA tour under the direction of Kirill Petrenko, a Japanese tour with the NHK Symphony Orchestra, and concerto appearances with the Philharmonic Orchestras of Berlin, Dresden, Auckland, and Nagoya. He has also performed with the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra and the Shanghai, Utah, Quebec, Royal Danish, and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestras. He has collaborated with conductors including Kirill Petrenko, Manfred Honeck, Marek Janowski, Gustavo Gimeno, Leonard Slatkin, Long Yu, Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider, Marie Jacquot, Fabien Gabel, and JoAnn Falletta. He has toured with Apollo’s Fire Orchestra performing on period instruments, and with the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra. Noah recently curated and presented a week-long celebration of the violin as part of his Artist Residency with his hometown Asheville Symphony, including a solo violin recital and an all-concerto program. 2024/25 highlights included debuts with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Orquestra de Valencia, and the Orchestre National de Lyon. Noah’s album Mozart/Sinigaglia with Kirill Petrenko and the Berlin Philharmonic was released in June 2024 to critical acclaim.

Noah is a renowned performer of traditional klezmer music, a musical style that has been part of his life since an early age. He has performed with groups such as Brave Old World, and has taught at many klezmer workshops. In 2016, Noah composed and premiered his own klezmer violin concerto, Fidl-Fantazye, with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, where he was concertmaster from 2011 to 2015. Since the premiere, he has also performed the work with the Baltimore Symphony, China Philharmonic, Guangzhou Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, New World Symphony, and the Kammerakademie Potsdam. He presented the chamber orchestra version of the work with members of the Berliner Philharmoniker in a special “Late Night” klezmer concert at the Philharmonie Berlin.

A passionate chamber musician, Noah performs in several fixed ensembles: in a trio with pianist Robert Levin and cellist Peter Wiley, with the Rosamunde String Quartet that includes members of the New York Philharmonic and Chicago Symphony, and with the multi-genre septet Philharmonix, which features members of both the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic Orchestras. Philharmonix tours worldwide, has an ongoing multi-year residency at Vienna’s Konzerthaus, and has released three albums on Deutsche Grammophon. Noah’s festival highlights include the Seattle Music Festival, Bergen International Festival, Sarasota Music Festival, Brevard Music Festival, ChamberFest Cleveland, Zermatt Music Festival, Aix-en-Provence, and La Jolla Summerfest.

Born in Asheville, North Carolina, Noah began playing the violin at age 4. At age 9, he played for Lord Yehudi Menuhin. He graduated from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and the Munich Hochschule. His principal mentors were Mauricio Fuks, Christoph Poppen and Ana Chumachenco. A laureate of the 2009 Queen Elisabeth Competition, he also won top prizes at the Long-Thibaud Competition in France and the Postacchini Competition in Italy.

Now a gifted educator himself, Noah teaches at the Karajan Academy of the Berliner Philharmoniker. He is on the faculty of the Morningside Music Bridge program, where he is also a member of the Advisory Council. He has served on the juries of the Menuhin Competition, the Indianapolis International Violin Competition, and as chair of the violin jury at the the Carl Nielsen Competition.

SHANSHAN YAO, violin

Shanshan Yao enjoys a multifaceted career as a chamber musician, soloist and orchestral player. She is a member of the Kammerakademie Potsdam in Germany and the Rosamunde String Quartet. She was previously a tenured member of the 1st violin section in the New York Philharmonic and in the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. She has also appeared as a guest musician with the Chicago Symphony and the Berlin Philharmonic.

Recent seasons highlights include performing Mozart Sinfonia Concertante at the Berlin Philharmonie with Sinfonie Orchester Berlin, the Butterfly Lovers Concerto with the Asheville Symphony, touring with Rosamunde String Quartet in the USA and with ‘Curtis on Tour’ in Europe. In the summer of 2024, Shanshan premiered the Double Concerto for Violin and Viola composed by the GRAMMY nominated composer Zhou Tian with Hangzhou Philharmonic in China. She made her concerto debut at the age of 12 with the Shanghai Broadcasting Symphony Orchestra. She has performed as a soloist with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (led by music director Manfred Honeck), Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, Sendai Philharmonic Orchestra, Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic, and the Banff Chamber Orchestra.

Shanshan won top prizes at the Corpus Christi International Competition, Hellam Young Artists Competition, Calgary Concerto Competition, and the Michael Hill International Violin Competition in New Zealand. A passionate chamber musician, Shanshan has participated in the Aspen, Summit, and Sarasota music festivals; Music from Angel Fire, The Banff Centre, and Music@Menlo where she also served as a chamber music coach.

Born in Huainan, China, Shanshan began playing violin at age 6 and enrolled at Shanghai Conservatory of Music when she was 9. She continued her studies in Canada at Mount Royal Conservatory under the tutelage of William van der Sloot and Xiaoming Wu. She received her Bachelor of Music degree from The Curtis Institute of Music and her Master’s degree from The Juilliard School. Her principal teachers were Aaron Rosand, Donald Weilerstein and Ronald Copes. Shanshan serves on the faculty and advisory council of the Morningside Music Bridge program in Boston.

TENG LI, viola

Violist Teng Li is an internationally celebrated soloist, chamber musician, and recording artist, hailed for her “burnished sound and elegant command of phrasing” (The New York Times) and “a musical personality that mesmerizes the ear” (BBC Music Magazine). In September 2023, Li was appointed to The Paul Hindemith Principal Viola Chair of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra by Music Director Emeritus for Life Riccardo Muti, a post she assumes at the beginning of the 2024/25 season. Previously, she was principal viola of the Los Angeles Philharmonic from 2018 to 2024 and served for fourteen seasons as principal viola of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.

Recognized as a “dazzlingly virtuosic” soloist (Los Angeles Times), she has appeared with premier ensembles throughout the world including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, National Chamber Orchestra, Munich Chamber Orchestra, Shanghai Opera Symphony Orchestra, and Esprit Orchestra. Most recently, she was featured in acclaimed performances of Paganini’s Sonata per la Grand Viola with Lina González-Granados and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, as well as in Kancheli’s Styx with the Oklahoma City Philharmonic led by Alexander Mickelthwate.

Teng is an ardent chamber musician, with notable past engagements at the Marlboro, Santa Fe Chamber, Rome Chamber, and Moritzburg music festivals, Chamber Music Northwest, La Jolla Music Society SummerFest, ChamberFest Cleveland, and the prestigious Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society Two program. She has performed at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall and the 92nd Street Y in New York, and collaborated with the Guarneri Quartet, joining the ensemble in concerts during the quartet’s final season in 2008/09. She is a founding member of the Rosamunde Quartet, together with violinists Noah Bendix-Balgley and Shanshan Yao and cellist Nathan Vickery, with whom she has given performances and masterclasses throughout the United States and Canada.

Teng’s probing interpretations of chamber works can be heard on several critically acclaimed recordings, among them 1939, her solo album for Azica Records with violinist Benjamin Bowman and pianist Meng-Chieh Liu. Her discography also includes recording credits with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Toronto Symphony, most notably on the latter’s Juno Award–winning Vaughan Williams album for Chandos, which features Li in a “ravishing” (CBC Music) performance of Flos Campi.

Teng has won top prizes at the Johansen International Competition, the Holland-America Music Society Competition, the Primrose International Viola Competition, the Klein International String Competition, and the ARD International Music Competition in Munich, Germany.

A committed educator, Li has taught at the Colburn School, University of Toronto, Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, and joins the faculty of Roosevelt University’s Chicago College of Performance Arts in the 2024/25 academic year.

Teng is a graduate of the Central Conservatory in Beijing, China, and the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where she studied with Michael Tree, Joseph de Pasquale, and Karen Tuttle.

NATHAN VICKERY, cello

Lauded as a “formidable cello soloist” (The New York Times), cellist Nathan Vickery appears regularly in solo and chamber music recitals and music festivals around the country. Mr. Vickery joined the New York Philharmonic in September 2013, performing and touring with the orchestra at home in New York and throughout the world. He performs frequently on the New York Philharmonic chamber music series Ensembles at Merkin Hall, and on the Philharmonic’s new music series.

He has appeared as a soloist with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and as a recitalist and chamber musician at festivals including the Marlboro Chamber Music Festival, Music at Angel Fire, Summer Music at Indiana University, the Perlman Music Program, and the Steans Institute at Ravinia. He is a member of the Rosamunde String Quartet, which is a collaboration with fellow musicians from the world’s top orchestras: the Berlin Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony, and the New York Philharmonic. He has served on the faculty of Morningside Music Bridge, the Indiana University Summer String Academy, Shanghai Orchestra Academy, and teaches privately in New York City.

Nathan received his Bachelors degree from the Curtis Institute of Music, under the tutelage of Peter Wiley. His pre-college studies were with Susan Moses at the Indiana University String Academy.