Established in 1999, this year-long residency is offered to one emerging string quartet each year, including three performances at Caramoor and two 10-day periods in which the Quartet lend their time and talents to Caramoor’s Student Strings, a classroom-based program of concerts and conversations in secondary schools.

Caramoor also commissions a new work for the quartet from a composer of their choice, which is premiered on their final concert. Through this aspect of the program, Caramoor is proud to have helped bring into existence A String Quartet Library for the 21st Century.

The Ernst Stiefel String Quartet-in-Residence mentoring program is supported, in part, by major endowment gifts from the Ernst C. Stiefel Foundation. The success of this mentoring program relies on the generosity of donors interested in furthering the careers of promising string quartets.

2024–25: Terra String Quartet / Juri Seo
2023–24: Abeo Quartet / Jessica Mays
2022–23: Ivalas Quartet / Derrick Skye
2020–22: Callisto Quartet / Saad Haddad
2019–20: Thalea Quartet / Paola Prestini
2018–19: Omer Quartet / Gabriella Smith
2017–18: Verona Quartet / Julia Adolphe
2016–17: Argus Quartet / Donald Crockett
2015–16: Aizuri Quartet / Paul Wiancko
2014–15: The Calidore Quartet / Patrick Harlin
2013–14: Dover Quartet / David Ludwig
2012–13: The Amphion Quartet / Yevgeniy Sharlat
2011–12: Linden String Quartet / Gabriel Kahane
2009–11: Jasper String Quartet / Andrew Norman
2008–09: Ariel String Quartet / Yohanan Chendler
2007–08: Escher String Quartet / Pierre Jalbert
2006–07: Parker Quartet / Lera Auerbach
2005–06: Jupiter String Quartet / John Musto
2004–05: Amernet String Quartet / Joel Hoffman
2003–04: Daedalus Quartet / David Horne
2002–03: Rossetti String Quartet / John Harbison
2001–02: Pacifica Quartet / Marta Ptaszynska
2000–01: Miró Quartet / Brent Michael Davids
1999–00: Avalon String Quartet / Augusta Read Thomas

Geared toward middle school and high school music classes, our Student Strings program builds music literacy and confidence through in-class workshop intensives, discussions, and live performances, all by Caramoor’s Ernst Stiefel String Quartet-in-Residence, extending access to the arts for area students by providing one-to-one mentoring with professional musicians, and giving students insight into pursuing a career in the arts. Each year, approximately 1,000 students benefit from these engagement activities in 11 schools across Westchester County.

For more information about this program, please contact Hallie Eichholz, Artistic Department Coordinator at hallie@caramoor.org or 914.232.5035 x426  914.767.3830. 

For two decades, Opera Director Will Crutchfield selected about a dozen young singers each year for six to eight weeks of intensive training in vocal technique and specialized study of the ornamentation that characterizes bel canto singing. The singers studied the bel canto repertoire and participated in full scale rehearsals of the summer operas presented at Caramoor, acted as understudies to the principal roles, were cast in some of the supporting opera roles, and performed in afternoon recitals that preceded the opera performances.