Congratulations are in order to the Cantante Quartet, the 2024-2025 recipient of the Celentano String Quartet Award at the Eastman School of Music. This award, created with funds endowed by and in honor of the late John Celentano ’37E, ’41E (MM), Professor Emeritus of Chamber Music, and his wife Mary, is in recognition of current students who have displayed exceptional achievement in the study and performance of chamber music. In addition to his teaching position at Eastman, Celentano had a storied performance career that includes appearances with the Cleveland Quartet, Eastman String Quartet, Modern Art String Quartet, Rochester Philharmonic, and many other ensembles.
The Cantante Quartet is now the second recipient of this award as the result of a rigorous audition process. They will receive a monetary prize, professional development support, coachings from Eastman faculty, and the opportunity to present their talents in the Celentano String Quartet Award Winners Recital, taking place in Hatch Recital Hall at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, March 7, 2025. This event is free and open to the public.
“The Celentano String Quartet Award annually recognizes an undergraduate string quartet for its outstanding level of artistic performance, and provides an additional year of study to further refine their musicianship and ensemble playing,” notes Janet Ying, Associate Professor of Chamber Music. “The Cantante Quartet is the second quartet to receive this award, and, through their creativity, enthusiasm, dedication, and beautiful spirit of cooperation, exemplifies the best of chamber music at Eastman.”
ESM Marketing & Communications student employee Andrew Sieradzki ’26E connected with Anika Grieve, third year undergraduate student and cellist with the Cantante Quartet, to talk about the group’s history, its future, and its March 7th performance.
Q: Tell us about the history of your group. How did the quartet form? Where did the name “Cantante” come from?
Liliana and I have played together in various Toronto-based youth orchestra programs and string quartets since middle school. We both ended up at Eastman purely by chance! After playing together again in the string quartet seminar at Eastman, Liliana approached me to ask if I wanted to be part of a quartet with her and violinist Amelia Posner-Hess. We both met Juan through the string quartet seminar and enjoyed working with him, so decided to ask him as well. Thanks mostly to the seminar, and the long standing musical connection between me and Liliana, the first iteration of the Cantante Quartet was formed. We had a great time working on Schumann’s A major quartet together in fall semester of 2023. In the following semester, Amelia took some time to focus on her solo playing, and we were lucky to find Veronica to work with us.
“Conversations in Music” at the Joseph Avenue Arts and Cultural Alliance. From L to R: Liliana Mahave, Veronica Rokicki, Anika Grieve, and Juan Alvarez Jimenez.
During the spring semester of 2024 we learned the Debussy quartet, and began performing in the community. Playing at a high school, elementary school and community center as part of the Eastman to Go program we developed an educational concert entitled “Conversations in Music”. Through Eastman To Go, and various engagements at Rochester seniors homes, we have found that community performance is one of the most rewarding parts of being a part of a chamber group. We are excited to continue performing in the community this spring!
We came up with “Cantante Quartet” after searching for a name which referenced our shared love for music, and our group’s diversity. Liliana is Chilean-American, Veronica is Polish-American, Juan is Mexican and I’m Canadian. Both Juan and Liliana speak Spanish, so we decided to find a Spanish word that described us — “cantante” means singer in Spanish. We try to bring this vocal quality to all of our performances.
Q: What does it mean to you to receive this honor?
We were all extremely excited to have been chosen as winners of the Celentano Award along with the Maple Quartet. Receiving this award has meant that we have been able to truly immerse ourselves in chamber music over the past academic year, pushing ourselves to learn far more repertoire than we have before, in a short time. As part of the award, we have received two coachings per week instead of the usual one, a dedicated rehearsal space for around 10-12 hours per week, numerous community performance opportunities, as well as the chance to play a full-length recital in Hatch Recital Hall. The support of Janet Ying, Robin Scott, and Mimi Hwang has allowed the quartet to grow significantly over the past few months. The inspiration, support, and encouragement they provide has been fundamental to our success. We try to express our gratitude by bringing the occasional baked goods to coachings, but they deserve far more than a few cookies!
The intensive experience of being the cellist of a Celentano quartet has allowed me to grow not just as a chamber musician, but as a cellist overall. In our daily rehearsals I am constantly inspired by my peers, and learn through their playing and suggestions. To paraphrase my studio professor David Ying, the best part about string quartet playing is the free lessons!
Q: What music do you have programmed for your concert on March 7th?
We tried to find a piece from each era of string quartet music for our program. This was difficult to fit into one recital, so some of the pieces are shorter than others. The variation of the pieces makes for a diverse collage of sounds which has allowed us to explore different styles of playing, and will make for an interesting listen!
The program is a journey through time, beginning with Haydn and Puccini, the classical and romantic eras in the first half, and moving to Prokofiev and Lau, the 20th and 21st century for the second half. I recommended Haydn’s Op. 20 No. 2 quartet because of its striking use of the cello as a melodic instrument, and the others were sold by the depth and contrast of this unique Haydn quartet. We heard the Ying Quartet play Puccini’s Chrisantemi at one of their recitals. When we were looking for a romantic era piece it was first on our list! After intermission we chose Prokofiev’s String Quartet No.2, an intense combination of Russian folk melodies and soviet censorship. Finally, because both Liliana and I are from Toronto, we wanted to include one piece on the program which reflected our roots. Kevin Lau’s third quartet was written for the Afiara Quartet in 2014, and combines modal melodies with rock themes and various extended techniques. We can’t wait to perform this program for you!
Q: Is there anything else in store for the Cantante Quartet after this recital?
We are planning various community performances for April and May. We hope to visit some schools and senior homes in order to build upon the relationships we established during our time in the Eastman To Go program. We have also applied to a variety of summer festivals, and hope to continue to grow as a group over the summer!
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Celentano Award Recital: The Cantante Quartet
Friday, March 7 at 6:30 PM | Hatch Recital Hall