Performances + Events
At the start of the 2026–2027 academic year, New England Conservatory will welcome two new chamber groups into its prestigious Professional Programs. The Katarina String Quartet and the Paddington Trio will be NEC’s ensembles in residence. NEC’s tuition-free Professional String Quartet and Piano Trio programs, led by Paul Katz and Vivian Hornik Weilerstein, respectively, offer exceptional, existing chamber groups unparalleled artistic mentorship, career development, and performance opportunities.
The Katarina String Quartet, which won the Grand Prize at the 2025 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, was founded in 2022 at McGill University, in Montreal. The group — violinists Jeanel Liang and Jérôme Chiasson, violist Celia Morin, and cellist Maya Enstad — explores a broad range of repertoire, from contemporary and canonical works to folk tunes, and collaborates regularly with community and charity organizations. The Katarinas were the graduate resident string quartet at The Juilliard School from 2024 to 2026.
The Paddington Trio won First Prize at the Royal Over-Seas League Competition in 2022 and the Parkhouse Award in 2023. The London-based trio — Finnish violinist Tuulia Hero, Irish cellist Patrick Moriarty, and American pianist Stephanie Tang — thrives on artistic collaboration beyond its three members — from orchestral to interdisciplinary projects. The Paddingtons’ debut album, Freakshow, is slated for release on the Pentatone label in 2027. Since 2023, the group has mentored ensembles at the Royal Northern College of Music.
We spoke recently with each group about what they look forward to experiencing at NEC, and more.
The Katarina String Quartet. Photo by Lou Anne Gouin Plourde.
Q&A with the Katarina String Quartet
Q: What do you look forward to experiencing in NEC’s Professional String Quartet program, and what do you hope to eventually take away from the program?
A: Through this residency, we can’t wait to stay curious, learn about each other and ourselves, and dig deeper into the string quartet repertoire. We’re looking forward to having mentorship from Paul Katz and other members of NEC’s incredible faculty on all aspects of the string quartet career. We’re also looking forward to building our network in Boston!
We also deeply value community engagement performances and look forward to connecting with folks in the Boston area through the program’s community engagement component. NEC’s tight-knit environment and connection to local community sites will allow us to flourish both artistically and personally. We dream of finding a teaching residency and we feel that our time at NEC will give us the tools to build that life together.
Q: What about the broader NEC experience — and living in Boston — excites you?
A: We are looking forward to being integrated into the NEC community! We’ll be spending lots of time at NEC practicing, rehearsing, and playing for faculty, and we’re excited to form new friendships with our peers. We secretly hope that people will knock on our rehearsal room door to give us some advice or read something with us.
We’ve also heard that Boston has a rich fiddle-music scene, which is really exciting to us as we’ve been exploring Quebecois folk music recently. We can’t wait to attend some jams and social dances.
Q: Do you all share any interests outside of music-making?
A: We all love to eat! Sharing meals together is one of our favorite things to do and often keeps us grounded when we’re traveling. We love trying new cuisines or local spots when we’re on tour, or cooking a meal together (Jeanel is our head chef in residence, lucky for us!). We also love spending time outside together and noticing wildlife whenever we travel — Celia loves to pull out her Merlin Bird ID app and tell us what kinds of different birds we’re hearing.
We had a pretty intense New York Times crossword phase a few years ago with something like a 150-day puzzle-solving streak. We had to kick the habit because it was eating into rehearsal time!
About the Katarina String Quartet
Grand Prize winner of the 2025 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, the Katarina String Quartet has quickly distinguished itself as one of North America’s most compelling young ensembles. Known for their personable concert presentations and community leadership, they explore all chamber music, from contemporary and canonized works to folk tunes. The tightly-knit ensemble most recently served as the 2024-2026 Graduate Resident String Quartet at The Juilliard School and is the incoming String Quartet in Residence at New England Conservatory.
The ensemble’s 2025–2026 season includes tours in the United States, United Arab Emirates, and Europe; performances in and around New York City, including at Carnegie Hall; and a residency at the Avaloch Farm Music Institute. The KSQ regularly collaborates with Refettorio Harlem, a free fine-dining restaurant focused on building community, rescuing food waste, and alleviating food insecurity in the New York City community. They have also appeared at Music for Food, a concert series raising donations for local food shelters. In the competition world, the KSQ are recent ProQuartet Prize and Drimnin String Quartet Academy Prize winners of the 2025 Wigmore Hall String Quartet Competition and winners of the Concert Artists Guild’s Louis and Susan Meisel Prize; previously, they were Gold Medal and BIPOC prizewinner of the 2024 St. Paul Chamber Music Competition.
Also active in the European chamber music scene, the Katarina String Quartet is generously supported by the Nederlandse Strijkkwartet Academie and regularly performs in The Netherlands.
The KSQ was founded in 2022 at McGill University under the tutelage of André Roy. Since then, the Katarinas have worked extensively with members of the Juilliard, Alban Berg, Danel, Dover, and Pacifica quartets and have participated in such prestigious programs as IMS Prussia Cove and the McGill International String Quartet Academy.
The quartet takes its name from luthier Katarina Guarneri, wife of violin-maker Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesu. Scholars believe that she worked on her husband’s violins during the most productive years of his career. Inspired by Katarina, the KSQ celebrates the countless people and communities behind the canonized figureheads of classical music that contribute to the art we enjoy.
The Paddington Trio. Photo by Benjamin Ealovega.
Q&A with the Paddington Trio
Q: What do you look forward to experiencing in NEC’s Professional Piano Trio program, and what do you hope to eventually take away from the program?
A: It’s a dream come true to make our Jordan Hall debut, as we consider it one of the most beautiful concert halls in the world. We are inspired by the extraordinary faculty at NEC and wish to continue our pursuit of this incredible craft that we love so much, as individuals and as a trio. This residency at NEC is one of a kind, and we know that it will continue to energize and support us in our concert career.
Q: What about the broader NEC experience excites you?
A: We feel honored to weave our story into the fabric of the NEC community and join the roster of wonderful trios that have come before us. We each look hugely forward to an exciting 2026–2027 season of performances and meaningful involvement in NEC’s artistic community and across the Boston area.
Q: Do you all share any interests outside of music-making?
A: Whenever we travel, we love to start our days by running together, then taking the time to make breakfast and meal prep for the day — we’re big on slow mornings. Also, since we’re one-third Finnish, we’re always on the lookout for the nearest sauna!
About the Paddington Trio
Critically acclaimed as “three virtuosic musicians who play as one” and who “live every note” (The Guardian), the Paddington Trio is one of its generation’s leading ensembles, recognized for its fresh, authoritative interpretations of the great classical canon and exuberant energy in performing today’s most compelling contemporary music. Much like the famous bear, Finnish violinist Tuulia Hero, Irish cellist Patrick Moriarty, and American pianist Stephanie Tang first came together at Paddington Station and made London their home. From the start they achieved a meteoric rise, emerging as First Prize recipients at the Royal Over-Seas League Competition in 2022 and winning the Parkhouse Award at Wigmore Hall in 2023. These early successes led to important debuts at both Wigmore Hall and Kings Place, earning high praise in The Strad and a five-star review in The Guardian.
Celebrated for their energetic communication, imaginative programming, and highly refined ensemble playing, Hero, Tang and Moriarty continue to captivate audiences in prominent halls and series worldwide. Their distinctive approach to performing is perhaps best encapsulated by Katie Derham’s BBC Radio 3 In Tune description: “satisfyingly bananas.” Their extensive performance calendar includes appearances at major UK venues (Wigmore Hall, LSO St. Luke’s, BBC Total Immersion), leading European festivals (Janine Jansen’s Internationaal Kamermuziekfestival Utrecht, TivoliVredenburg, Schiermonnikoog Festival, Festival Flanders Ghent, Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival, West Cork Chamber Music Festival), and North American stages (Internacional Festival Cervantino). The Trio has been featured on YLE, Klara, RTÉ lyric fm, and BBC Radio 3.
The Paddington Trio thrives on artistic collaboration beyond its three members, from orchestral and chamber music collaborations to innovative and interdisciplinary projects. They made their acclaimed concerto debut with the Beethoven Triple Concerto, performing alongside violinist Jan Söderblom and the Jyväskylä Symphony Orchestra in Finland, and their commitment to exploring chamber music’s most iconic works is exemplified by such collaborations as Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time with clarinetist Michael Collins and Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet with violinist Philip Setzer of the Emerson String Quartet. In 2026, they performed alongside and worked closely with principal dancer Tiler Peck and the world-renowned New York City Ballet at Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London.
The Trio has received close mentorship from remarkable artists including Alfred Brendel, Eberhard Feltz, Marc Danel, Steven Isserlis, Robert Levin, Thomas Adès, and members of the Ébène, Emerson, Alban Berg, Meta4, and Danel quartets. They hold esteemed residencies at the Reina Sofia International Institute of Chamber Music in Madrid, where they’ve worked with Günter Pichler (Alban Berg Quartet), and at ProQuartet Centre Européen de Musique de Chambre in Paris. They have greatly benefited from the support of the Britten Pears Arts, City Music Foundation, Kirckman Concert Society, MERITA, European Chamber Music Academy, Netherlands String Quartet Academy, and IMS Prussia Cove. Since 2023, they have taught and inspired young ensembles at the Royal Northern College of Music, embodying a commitment to nurturing the next generation of chamber musicians.
Highlight engagements for the 2026–2027 season include The Paddington Trio’s upcoming debuts at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Lucerne Chamber Music Society, and the Helsinki Seriös, West Wicklow, and Newbury spring festivals. Their much-anticipated debut album, Freakshow, will be released on the Pentatone label in 2027.
Hero performs on a 1740 Francesco Goffriller violin, generously on loan from the Beare’s International Violin Society. Moriarty performs on an exceptionally fine 1772 cello by Joseph Hill and 1820 bow by John Dodd.
