The Pacifica Quartet is an American string quartet founded in 1994 by violinist Simin Ganatra and cellist Brandon Vamos together with violinist Sibbi Bernhardsson and violist Kathryn Lockwood. The group was conceived by students at the Music Academy of the West in Montecito, California, and took its name from the ocean visible from the school. It won prizes at the Coleman Chamber Music Competition in 1996, the Concert Artists Guild Competition in 1997 and the Naumburg Chamber Music Competition in 1998. Violist Masumi Per Rostad joined in 2001, and in 2017 Austin Hartman and Guy Ben-Ziony replaced Bernhardsson and Rostad; the viola chair is now held by Mark Holloway. The ensemble is based in Bloomington, Indiana.

The Pacifica Quartet is known for performing and recording complete quartet cycles by a single composer, having undertaken the full sets by Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Shostakovich and Elliott Carter. It received Chamber Music America’s Cleveland Quartet Award in 2002 and an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2006, and was named Ensemble of the Year by Musical America in 2009. The group tours in the Americas, Europe and Asia and has appeared in live webcasts from venues including the Auditorium du Louvre in Paris. It serves as Quartet-in-Residence and full-time faculty at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, having previously held that post at the University of Illinois from 2003 to 2012, and its members are Resident Performing Artists at the University of Chicago.

Sources:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacifica_Quartet