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New York Philharmonic String Quartet
Principal musicians from the celebrated symphony orchestra
Wednesday • March 24, 2027 • 7:30 pm
Main Auditorium
The New York Philharmonic String Quartet comprises four principal musicians from the Philharmonic: Concertmaster Frank Huang (The Charles E. Culpeper Chair), Principal Second Violin Qianqian Li, Principal Viola Cynthia Phelps (The Mr. and Mrs. Frederick P. Rose Chair) and Principal Cello Carter Brey (The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Chair). The group was formed in January 2017 during the Philharmonic’s 175th anniversary season. The New York Philharmonic String Quartet made its debut as the solo ensemble in John Adams’s Absolute Jest in New York in March 2017 and reprised the work on the orchestra’s 2017 European spring tour. All four members are multiple-prize winners, have appeared as concerto soloists with the Philharmonic and orchestras around the world, and have appeared frequently in the Philharmonic’s chamber music series at David Geffen Hall and Merkin Concert Hall.
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Frank Huang has performed at the Marlboro Music Festival, Ravinia’s Steans Institute, Seattle Chamber Music Festival and Caramoor. He frequently participates in Musicians from Marlboro’s tours and was selected by The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center to be a member of the prestigious Bowers Program (formerly CMS Two). Before joining the Houston Symphony as concertmaster in 2010, Frank Huang held the position of first violinist of the Grammy Award–winning Ying Quartet.
Qianqian Li has performed at major music festivals including Aspen, Tanglewood, Yellow Barn and Sarasota. As a soloist, she has performed with orchestras in major concert halls in Asia, the U.S., the U.K. and South Africa. Before joining the New York Philharmonic, she served as a member of the first violin section of The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra for three years, after winning positions with the orchestras of Seattle, Atlanta and St. Paul in the same period. She has also performed in the Boston, Pittsburgh and Atlanta Symphony Orchestras and The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra.
Cynthia Phelps performs with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Jupiter Chamber Players and the Santa Fe, La Jolla, Seattle, Chamber Music Northwest and Bridgehampton Festivals. She has appeared with the Guarneri, Tokyo, Orion, American, Brentano and Prague Quartets, as well as the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio. She is also a founding member of the chamber group Les Amies, a flute-harp-viola group with Philharmonic Principal Harp Nancy Allen and flutist Carol Wincenc.
Carter Brey has made regular appearances with the Tokyo and Emerson String Quartets and The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and at festivals such as Spoleto (both in the U.S. and Italy), and the Santa Fe and La Jolla Chamber Music Festivals. He and pianist Christopher O’Riley recorded Le Grand Tango: Music of Latin America, a disc of compositions from South America and Mexico released on Helicon Records.

