The historical precursor ensembles to the orchestra included the Harmonic Society (Harmoniska sällskapet), which was active from 1831 to 1837. In 1859, the Philharmoniska sällskapet (Philharmonic Society) was founded under Karl Johan Lewerth. A competitor organisation, the Örebro musikförening Philomele (Örebro Music Association Philomele), was founded in 1868, and continued operations until 1916.

Violinist Irina Muresanu, cellist Mihai Marica, and pianist Heng-Jin Park each have distinguished careers as soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, and have appeared with major orchestras and premier music festivals throughout the United States and Europe. Ms. Park, the founder of the Boston Trio and founder and Artistic Director of Halcyon Music Festival, made her solo debut with the Boston Pops at the age of 15. Ms. Muresanu, who has appeared as soloist and chamber musician throughout the United States, Europe and Asia, is the recipient of top prizes at the Montreal International Competition and the Washington International competition. Cellist Mr. Ellsworth has performed as soloist with the Boston Symphony, Akron Symphony, Boston Philharmonic, Jacksonville Symphony, Johnstown Symphony, as well as appearances at Verbier and Marlboro music festivals.

During the last two seasons the Boston Trio performed at the prestigious Newport Classical Music Festival (including a piece by Stacy Garrop which was commissioned for the trio by Newport Classical), the Sanibel Music Festival, the Halcyon Music Festival, the Community Concerts at Second (Baltimore, MD), the Feldman Chamber Music Society (Norfolk, VA), the Charleston Chamber Music Society (Charleston, WV) and Park International Center for Music (Kansas City), among others. Recent highlights for the Boston Trio include performances at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, the Maui Classical Music Festival, the Virtuosi Concerts (Winnipeg, Canada), the Clark Memorial Library UCLA, University of Maine at Collins Center, University of Maryland, Neskowin Chamber Music Series (OR), Flagler Museum (Palm Beach, FL), the Chamber Music Society of Williamsburg (VA), the Kalliroscope Gallery (MA) and Gold Coast Chamber Players (CA), and several performances of Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with the Boston Philharmonic.

The Boston Trio is passionately committed to furthering the exposure and performances of new music. They have premiered several works written for and dedicated to them.

The Boston Trio has been invited to perform on numerous prestigious music series including the Celebrity Series of Boston, Seiji Ozawa Hall in Tanglewood, Chamber Music Society of Utica, Gualala Arts Chamber Music Series, ‘First Monday’ series at NEC, Bay Chamber Concerts in Rockport, Maine, Harvard Musical Association, Concerts at the Point, Brigham Young University, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Howland Chamber Music Circle, University of Arkansas, Merkin Hall, and nationally televised performance at Belgrade Music Festival at Kolarac Foundation Hall in Serbia. The Boston Trio has released several acclaimed recordings. Their latest one titled “Elegy and Blue” was released by the Centaur label.

Actively involved in the education of the next generation of musicians, the Boston Trio has held mini-residencies at the Dickinson College (PA), Gordon College (MA), and Luther College (IA). The trio members have coached chamber music at Tanglewood Institute of Music, Harvard University, and MIT, and served as Ensemble-inResidence at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and at the New England Conservatory. The Trio is committed to bringing chamber music to a broader community through outreach activities at public schools and assisted living centers. The Boston Trio’s individual members serve on the faculties of the New England Conservatory, the University of Maryland, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and are in demand as master class teachers throughout the United States, Asia and Europe.

Thompson has received critical acclaim for his performances of the Penderecki Viola Concerto in Boston with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Symphony Orchestra and in London (UK); for the premiere of Elena Ruehr’s Viola Concerto Shadow Light with the New Orchestra of Washington; and for the premiere of Olly Wilson’s Viola Concerto with the Rochester Philharmonic. He has played Hindemith’s Viola d’amore Concerto (Kammermusik No. 6) with the Philadelphia Orchestra in Saratoga and concertos by Vivaldi at the Bravo Festival in Colorado and at Aston Magna in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.

He has premiered and performed many recital and chamber works by MIT composers including Peter Child, Keeril Makan, Charles Shadle, and John Harbison, and has recorded Barry Vercoe’s iconic Synapse for Viola and Computer. His recording of the Concerto for Viola, Chamber Orchestra & Percussion commissioned from composer and organist Anthony Newman in 1985 was re-released along with concertos for five other instruments by the composer.

Thompson’s recordings with orchestra also include concertos by Hindemith, Bartók, Serly, and Bloch, along with works by Françaix, Martin, and Jongen. Recent releases include Elena Ruehr’s Shadow Light with the New Orchestra of Washington, and John Harbison’s Viola Concerto with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project.

Thompson has been a guest of the Audubon, Borromeo, Cleveland, DaPonte, Emerson, Fine Arts, Jupiter, Lydian, Miami, Muir, Orion, Parker, Shanghai, and Vermeer string quartets and a frequent participant at chamber music festivals in Anchorage, Seattle, Sitka, Los Angeles, Montreal, Edmonton, Rockport (Massachusetts and Maine), Rio de Janeiro, Spoleto, Amsterdam, Dubrovnik and Okinawa. He has been a frequent guest of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and performed with them on a Live from Lincoln Center telecast. He appears on recordings of chamber works released by Music from the Sitka Festival, Het Reizend Muziekgezelschap, and the Boston Chamber Music Society.

Born and raised in the Bronx, New York, Thompson holds a doctorate in viola performance from Juilliard. He currently lives in Boston, where he is a member of the viola faculty at New England Conservatory. He has served as violist and Artistic Director of the Boston Chamber Music Society since 2009 and is the founder of the MIT Chamber Music Society and the Institute’s Emerson/Harris private study program. In 1995 he was recognized for his extraordinary teaching at MIT and named a Margaret MacVicar Faculty Fellow and Robert R. Taylor Professor of Music, followed a decade later by his appointment as Institute Professor.

In 2022, at its 47th International Viola Congress, Thompson was awarded the American Viola Society Career Achievement Award ‘In recognition of distinguished contributions to viola performance and viola pedagogy through his influential recordings and his celebrated tenure at NEC and MIT, hosting the 1985 International Congress, and for advocacy and leadership on behalf of the viola.’

PUBLIQuartet has held artist residencies at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and National Sawdust, and has performed everywhere from Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center to the Montreal, Newport and Detroit Jazz Festivals. Their 2016 appearance on The Colbert Report, “Requiem for a Debate” – in which they improvised a live soundtrack to the third presidential debate – not only received over a million views, but saw the Washington Post declaring them “the winner…indubitably.”

The quartet’s latest album, the GRAMMY®-nominated What Is American, released in June 2022 on the Bright Shiny Things label, explores resonances between contemporary, blues, jazz, freely-improvised, and rock-inflected languages, all of which trace their roots back to the Black and Indigenous musical traditions that inspired Dvorak’s “American” String Quartet (Op. 96). The album also includes CARDS 11-11-2020, written by Roscoe Mitchell for PUBLIQuartet, as well as works by Ornette Coleman, Rhiannon Giddens, and Vijay Iyer.

Committed to creating an inclusive performance space, supporting living composers of varying genres, and expanding the classical canon, PUBLIQuartet was the inaugural ensemble-in-residence for Carnegie Hall’s PlayUSA program in 2021-2022, working with high school music classes across the country on a large-scale creative project called Reflections on Resilience. Their innovative PUBLIQ Access program has promoted emerging composers by presenting a wide variety of under-represented music for string quartet–from classical, jazz and electronic, to non-notated, world and improvised music. Other unique projects include MIND | THE | GAP, a series of creative projects developed by PQ that weave together different styles of music via group composition, arranging, and improvisation. These unique works range from “Bird in Paris” (Claude Debussy meets Charlie Parker) to more recent extended works including Reflections on Beauty, a multimedia celebration of the life and legacy of Madam C.J. Walker featuring visual projections and narration by Walker’s great-great-granddaughter, A’Lelia Bundles.

Founded in 2010, PUBLIQuartet is based in New York City.