Diderot String Quartet—named after the eighteenth-century French philosopher and Boccherini enthusiast Denis Diderot—brings a fresh approach to works of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Called “emotional, riveting, and ultimately cathartic” (The Wall Street Journal), Diderot came together in 2012 after having first met at Oberlin Conservatory and The Juilliard School. The four musicians share a background in historical performance and a passion for the string quartet genre; they found the thrill of exploring the quartet repertoire on period instruments to be irresistible.

Recent and upcoming engagements for Diderot String Quartet include Chamber Music Pittsburgh, Santa Fe Pro Musica, Lincoln Friends of Chamber Music (NE), Chamber Music Corvallis (Corvallis, OR), Pegasus Early Music / NYS Baroque, Connecticut Early Music Festival, Friends of Chamber Music Vancouver and Early Music Vancouver, Early Music Society of the Islands (Victoria, BC), Belvedere Series (VA), Helicon Foundation (NYC), Music in the Somerset Hills (Bernardsville, NJ), Rockefeller University’s Tri-I Noon Recital Series (NYC), Carmel Bach Festival (CA), Electric Earth Concerts (Peterborough, NH), The Crypt Sessions (NYC), and Music Before 1800 in New York. Diderot has also been featured in performance at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Toledo Museum of Art, and the Morgan Library in New York.

Diderot String Quartet served as Quartet-in-Residence at Washington National Cathedral for five seasons, and served as guest faculty for Oberlin’s Baroque Performance Institute. The quartet commissioned and premiered Small Infinities, a new work for gut strings from composer Lembit Beecher, and collaborates frequently with internationally acclaimed artists, including Jesse Blumberg, Dashon Burton, David Breitman, Avi Stein, and Harry Bicket. Diderot has a forthcoming album of string quartets by Haydn (op. 20, nos. 2 and 4).

UPDATED JULY 2023. PLEASE DESTROY ALL PREVIOUS VERSIONS.