Angela Bae, Violin - Justin DeFilippis, Violin - Benjamin Zannoni, Viola - Russell Houston, Cello

The celebrated Balourdet Quartet produces both emotionally intense and intimate moments on international stages. Its unique closeness and willingness to take creative risks earned it the 2024 Avery Fisher Career Grant, as well as Chamber Music America’s 2024 Cleveland Quartet Award. With more than 70 concerts per season, recent highlights include the Balourdet’s debuts at Carnegie and Wigmore Halls, and new string quartets by composers Karim Al-Zand and Paul Novak through grants from Chamber Music America (2021) and the Barlow Foundation (2023). They are currently the Graduate Quartet in Residence at the prestigious Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University and are recent graduates of the New England Conservatory’s Professional String Quartet Program. 

For the 2023-24 season, the Balourdet has a full year of concerts, residencies, and exciting projects scheduled. They will return to the La Jolla Music Society, Montgomery Chamber Music, Nevada Chamber Music Festival, and Schneider Concert Series and will make debuts in Atlanta, Memphis, Houston, and San Antonio. Collaborations include pianists Marc-André Hamelin, Simone Dinnerstein, Stewart Goodyear, and violist Jordan Bak. During this season, they also begin their position as String Quartet in Residence with the Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle in North Carolina.

The Balourdet journey began in 2018 in the mountains of New Mexico at the Taos School of Music, where violinists Justin DeFilippis, Angela Bae, and cellist Russell Houston first bonded as friends over long evenings of chamber music, luxurious Peppermint Schnapps and extravagant meals created by chef extraordinaire Antoine Balourdet, a renaissance man with an exceptional love of life and music. It was the friendships, a shared passion for music and food, and gratitude for the role the festival played in the formation of the quartet, that inspired the members to name the ensemble in Chef Balourdet’s honor. 

Soon thereafter, in the heat of a waning Texas summer, Justin, Angela, and Russell joined with violist Benjamin Zannoni at Rice University, and the Balourdet Quartet was formed. Inspired by their love for the repertoire and the excitement of having found each other, the four friends found themselves playing quartets late into the night for fun. After having been together for only one year at Rice University, and a summer at the Aspen Music Festival, they took second prize at the Nielsen International String Quartet Competition, and were selected as the only quartet admitted to Boston’s historic New England Conservatory Professional String Quartet Program under the tutelage of Cleveland Quartet cellist Paul Katz.

In 2021, the Quartet won the Grand Prize at New York’s Concert Artists Guild Competition, which included joint management by Concert Artists Guild in the U.S., and Young Classical Artist’s Trust (YCAT) in the UK and Europe. In addition, the Balourdet has been prizewinners in Canada’s Banff International String Quartet Competition, the International Premio Paolo Borciani Competition in Italy, Gold Medal winners at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, and Gold Medal and Audience Prizewinners at the Yellow Springs Competition.

“transparent, impeccably balanced sonority propelled by unstinting ebullience, the Balourdet players confidently refreshed the familiar repertory and gave inviting currency to Al-Zand’s clever piece from 2022” 
– San Diego Story

“so electrifying was this young, ebullient foursome that anything could be allowed…It was an outward love affair played with love…winning from this most winning ensemble.” 
– The Classical Music Network

 “teeming with integrity and purpose”
– The Violin Channel

“First-class Beethoven playing…”
– Chicago Classical Review

“Absolute musical perfection… full, robust sound… impeccable balance” 
– The Boston Musical Intelligencer

“performed with such exquisitely delightful passion that the whole audience must have been thinking Yes, Yes, YES!” 
– The Millbrook Independent

“the Balourdet Quartet poured forth superb sounds with exhilarating hints of Romantic style and passion…”
– Seen and Heard International 

Born in Seoul, Korea, Angela Bae is a violinist in the Balourdet Quartet. She began her musical aspirations at the age of three. Angela has appeared as a soloist in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Disney Hall, and Sydney Town Hall, and when she was 16, she became the youngest ever Concertmaster of the American Youth Symphony in LA. She has won awards in Korea and the United States, including the Korea Times Competition, Alexander and Buono International Competition, and Mika Hasler Competition. As a chamber musician, she has performed with artists including Gil Shaham, Kenneth Goldsmith, Geoffrey Nutall, and Alexander Sitkovetsky. Ms. Bae is a recent graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music Professional String Quartet Program where she studied with Donald Weilerstein. She also studied with Paul Kantor at Rice University and Phillip Levy in Los Angeles.

A native of New Jersey, Justin DeFilippis is a violinist in the Balourdet Quartet. He is a graduate of the New England Conservatory, Rice University Shepherd School of Music, and Juilliard School Pre-College Division, where his major teachers were Miriam Fried, Nicholas Kitchen, Cho-Liang Lin, Donald Weilerstein, and Elizabeth Chang. He has collaborated alongside artists including the Silkroad Ensemble, Jon Kimura Parker, and Matthew Lipman, as well as members of the Ying and American Quartets.

Benjamin Zannoni, the violist of the Balourdet Quartet, has performed around the world and shared the stage with artists such as Ralph Kirshbaum, Elmar Oliveira, Cho-Liang Lin, Anthony McGill and Marc-André Hamelin. He is a recent graduate from the New England Conservatory and has also received degrees from Rice University, Manhattan School of Music and the Juilliard School, where he studied with Martha Katz, Mai Motobuchi, James Dunham, Karen Dreyfus, Pinchas Zukerman, Patinka Kopec, Heidi Castleman and Robert Vernon. Zannoni is originally from Houston, Texas. 

Russell Houston, from Dallas, Texas, is the cellist of the Balourdet Quartet. He is the winner of the Lynn Harrell Concerto Competition and Sorantin International Competition and performed as soloist with orchestras including the Dallas and Plano Symphonies. Houston has had the privilege of sharing the stage with renowned artists such as Clive Greensmith, Cho-Liang Lin, Brinton Smith, and members of the Cleveland and Dover Quartets. He holds degrees from the New England Conservatory, Rice University, Colburn Conservatory, and Northwestern University, where he studied with Paul Katz, Brinton Smith, Clive Greensmith, and Hans Jensen.