Grand Prize winners of the 2025 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition and recipients of the CAG Louis and Susan Meisel Prize, the Katarina String Quartet has quickly emerged as one of North America's most exciting young chamber ensembles. Known for its engaging performances and thoughtful programming, the quartet explores repertoire ranging from classical masterworks and contemporary music to folk traditions. The ensemble recently completed a two-year residency as Graduate Resident String Quartet at The Juilliard School and now serves as Quartet in Residence at the New England Conservatory.

Beyond the concert stage, the Katarina String Quartet is deeply committed to community engagement and artistic innovation. The ensemble collaborates with organizations including Project: Music Heals Us, Music for Food, and Refettorio Harlem, and was awarded a 2025 Chamber Music America Ensemble Forward grant to advance a sustainability initiative exploring more environmentally responsible approaches to chamber music touring. Formed in Montréal in 2022, the quartet also celebrates its Canadian roots through performances of music by Canadian composers and original arrangements of traditional Québecois fiddle tunes.

The quartet takes its name from luthier Katarina Guarneri, whose contributions to the celebrated Guarneri violin workshop are believed to have coincided with its most productive years. Inspired by her legacy, the ensemble celebrates the many artists, craftspeople, and communities whose contributions have shaped classical music.

Praised by The Strad for playing that is "fierce and lyrical" and by The New York Times for works that are "evocative," Jessica Meyer is an award-winning composer and violist whose music combines expressive lyricism with a distinctive contemporary voice. Her debut composer-performer album, Ring Out (2019), reached No. 1 on the Billboard Traditional Classical Chart, and her 2024 vocal album I long and seek after was hailed by Musical America as "gorgeously scored."

Meyer's compositions have been performed at venues including Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center by leading ensembles and musicians nationwide. She has received commissioning awards from Chamber Music America and the New York State Council on the Arts, and her works have been premiered by artists and ensembles including Roomful of Teeth, St. Lawrence String Quartet, American Brass Quintet, PUBLIQuartet, A Far Cry, and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, whose 2025–26 Carnegie Hall season opens with her commissioned work. An active performer, collaborator, and educator, Meyer joined the viola faculty of the Manhattan School of Music in 2023.