Viano Quartet

Viano Quartet plays KMFA Classical 89.5 on Friday, September 18, and it's the date that opens the Austin Chamber Music Center's new season. The program is a triple bill of Haydn, Mozart and Schumann, three of the big names in the string quartet repertoire. If you've been following the local chamber scene, this is the kind of season-opener that sets the tone for the rest of the year.

The quartet consists of Lucy Wang, Hao Zhou, Aiden Kane and Tate Zawadiuk. They formed in 2015 at the Colburn Conservatory of Music in Los Angeles, and there's a bit of a story to how they came together: the four of them had originally auditioned to be leading actors in Hollywood. They ended up as a quartet instead, and they've been playing together ever since. They released a debut EP on the Curtis Studio label and a first full-length record, Voyager.

They've picked up some serious momentum over the last few years. They took first prize at the 13th Banff International String Quartet Competition and received the 2025 Avery Fisher Career Grant. For the 2024-2027 seasons, they're serving as Bowers Program Artists at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, so they're spending a good deal of their time in New York. The critics have been on board too: The New Yorker called them "a superb North American group," and The Boston Globe described them as "a rare unity of intention."

Tickets are $12, and the show is at KMFA / Austin Chamber Music Center, 41 Navasota Street in Austin. It's the first concert of the season, so it's a good place to start if you're planning to keep up with the center's programming this year.