Thalea String Quartet Named Teaching Artists at Washington Performing Arts

The ensemble will join Washington, D.C.'s performing arts institution in their efforts to serve their diverse community

The Thalea String Quartet is comprised of violinists Christopher Whitley and Kumiko Sakamoto, violist Lauren Spauldin, and cellist Alex Cox.

Their newest role as Teaching Artists with the Washington Performing Arts will see them visiting schools in the D.C. and Maryland area and giving performances and presentations to elementary school children.

Winners of the 2021 Ann Divine Educator Award from the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, The Thalea String Quartet is currently the Doctoral Fellowship String Quartet at the University of Maryland.

The quartet received top prizes at the 2018 Fischoff Competition and 2018 Chamber Music Yellow Springs Competition and held fellowship positions at the University of Texas at Austin and the San Francisco Conservatory.

They have performed alongside members of the Emerson, Borromeo, and St Lawrence String Quartets, in addition to Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw, violist Lawrence Power, Canadian band BADBADNOTGOOD, and hip hop artist Jay Electronica.

The quartet also served as Associated Artists at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Waterloo, Belgium for the 2019-20 season and was the 2019-20 Ernst Stiefel Quartet-in-Residence at the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts.