Jessie Montgomery: Strum (Catalyst Quartet) | Perspectives

In December 2023, Catalyst Quartet—The Met’s 2023–24 Quartet in Residence—gave voice to a special set of Met collection instruments for the first time in over 70 years. The instruments, built in the 1890s by the Gemünder family shop in Queens, are a rare example of a matched instrument family, conceived and constructed to be played together as a quartet.

Get to know the Gemünder quartet with composer (and former Catalyst Quartet member) Jessie Montgomery’s folk-inflected “Strum.”

Catalyst Quartet
– Karla Donehew Perez, violin
– Abi Fayette, violin
– Paul Laraia, viola
– Karlos Rodriguez, cello

Performing on a string quartet by A. Gemünder & Sons, constructed for the World’s Columbian Expo, 1893. Gift of A. Gemünder & Sons, 1945.

Recorded on Saturday, December 9, 2023 at The Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium.

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Quartet in Residence programming is made possible by the Grace Jarcho Ross and Daniel G. Ross Concert Fund.

This performance was presented in collaboration with The Met’s Department of Musical Instruments.