American composer Pierre Jalbert has earned widespread attention for his richly colored and superbly crafted scores which paint vibrant sonic portraits for the listener through a musical language that is engaging, expressive, and “immediately captures one’s attention with its strong gesture and vitality” (American Academy of Arts and Letters). Drawing inspiration from a variety of sources from plainchant melodies to natural phenomena and his French-Canadian heritage, his music has been commissioned and performed worldwide by artists and institutions including the Boston Symphony, London Symphony, the Los Angeles and St. Paul Chamber Orchestras, the Symphonies of Houston, Cincinnati, Budapest, Vermont, Albany, and Milwaukee, the National Symphony, and the Cabrillo and Eastern Festival Orchestras among others. Hailed as an “acknowledged chamber-music master” by The New Yorker, his chamber music has been commissioned and performed by Midori, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Escher, Emerson, Ying, Del Sol, Chiara, and Borromeo String Quartets, Music from Copland House, Morgenstern Trio, Arizona Friends of Chamber Music, Chatter, and the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble.

Known for his “Rhapsodic and skillfully written” (The New York Times) music, his discography features recordings by David Finckel and Wu Han, his Violin Concerto with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and Margaret Batjer as soloist, Kinetic, the Jupiter, Pro Arte and Ying Quartets, and the Music from Copland House ensemble.

Among his many honors are the Rome Prize, the BBC Masterprize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Fromm Foundation commission, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Stoeger Award, given biennially “in recognition of significant contributions to the chamber music repertory”, and an Academy award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Jalbert has served as Composer-in-Residence with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, California Symphony, and Chicago’s Music in the Loft. He is Professor of Music at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music in Houston, and his music is published by Schott Music.

The Escher String Quartet has received acclaim for its profound musical insight and rare tonal beauty. A former BBC New Generation Artists and recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant, the quartet has performed at the BBC Proms at Cadogan Hall and is a regular guest at Wigmore Hall. In its home town of New York, the ensemble serves as season artists of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.
The Escher Quartet has made a distinctive impression throughout Europe, with recent debuts including the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Berlin Konzerthaus, London’s Kings Place, Slovenian Philharmonic Hall, Les Grands Interprètes Geneva, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, and Auditorium du Louvre. The group has appeared at festivals such as the Heidelberg Spring Festival, Budapest’s Franz Liszt Academy, Dublin’s Great Music in Irish Houses, the Hong Kong International Chamber Music Festival, and the Perth International Arts Festival in Australia.
Alongside its growing European profile, the Escher Quartet continues to flourish in its home country, performing at the Aspen Music Festival, Bravo! Vail, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Bowdoin Music Festival, Toronto Summer Music, Chamber Music San Francisco, Music at Menlo, and the Ravinia and Caramoor festivals. The quartet has held faculty positions at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX and the University of Akron, OH.
The Escher Quartet takes its name from the Dutch graphic artist M.C. Escher, inspired by Escher’s method of interplay between individual components working together to form a whole.