Aptly named after the great American visual artist Alexander Calder, The Calder Quartet continues to explore and push the boundaries of chamber music with a keen acumen for combining the best of the traditional and the avant-garde. The group has been praised for its “splendor and substance,” (Alan Rich, LA Weekly) and, taking a cue from its namesake, boldly searches for new ways to stretch the capabilities, combinations, and definition of a string quartet.

The group highlights its 2006-07 season as The Juilliard School's Graduate Resident Quartet, one of the school's highest distinctions. Other pinnacles of the Quartet's season include a return to Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and a debut with the Orange County Performing Arts Center in the new Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall. The group also continues its relationship with the Colburn School in Los Angeles, where they participate in the Colburn Chamber Artists Series of concerts and outreach events, and the Carlsbad Music Festival, an alternative classical music festival in Carlsbad, CA that the group co-founded with composer Matt McBane.

Recent milestones for the Quartet include graduating from the Colburn School after serving for two years as the school's graduate quartet-in-residence, performing the music of Christopher Rouse at the Aspen Music Festival after two summers as fellows in the Aspen Music Festival and School's Advanced String Quartet Studies program, and participating in La Jolla Music Society's SummerFest 2005. The group has enjoyed debuts with the Washington Performing Arts Society's Kreeger String Series at the Kennedy Center, the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, UCLA Live, and San Francisco Performances. Last season they participated in the Los Angeles Philharmonic's Minimalist Jukebox festival and had the opportunity to work with the composer Terry Riley. Their performance of Riley's early string chamber music garnered the attention of Los Angeles Times critic Mark Swed, who wrote, "the Calder Quartet was stunning."

The Quartet has been featured in the Los Angeles Times and San Diego Union Tribune. Radio appearances include commentary and performances on NPR's Performance Today, WQXR in New York, WGBH in Boston, and KMozart in Los Angeles.

Guest artists who have appeared with the Calder Quartet include pianists Claude Frank and Anne-Marie McDermott, cellist and mentor Ronald Leonard, double-Grammy Award winning guitarist Sharon Isbin, flutist Ransom Wilson, harpist Nancy Allen, violinist Robert McDuffie, and mandolinist Mike Marshall.