Curtis on Tour in Davis, CA

Named for the Erinyes (a.k.a. the Furies) from the Greek tragedy Oresteia by Aeschylus, and with roots in Estonia, Lithuania, Greece, the United States, and Finland, the Erinys Quartet was founded in 2018 at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, where they worked closely with cellist Marko Ylönen. Since the autumn of 2023, they have been the Nina von Maltzahn String Quartet-in-Residence at the Curtis Institute of Music.

In the 2024-25 season, the Erinys Quartet performs throughout Europe and the United States, with concerts in Greece, Hungary, Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia, Florida, Minnesota, Colorado, New Mexico, and California. They have also been featured in festivals and concert series such as the Mimir Chamber Music Festival in Fort Worth, Texas, Festival Groba in Ponteareas, Spain, the inaugural Dover Quartet Workshop at the Curtis Institute, as well as the Professional String Quartet Seminar with the Pacifica Quartet and Atar Arad (Cleveland Quartet) at Indiana University.

Since 2021, the Erinys Quartet has been supported by Le Dimore del Quartetto, where they are also a part of the European Union-sponsored MERITA platform. In addition to their studies at the Curtis Institute, the members of the Erinys Quartet are pursuing a diploma in chamber music at Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía in Madrid, Spain, under the tutelage of Günter Pichler (Alban Berg Quartett).

In 2023, the Erinys Quartet was awarded the Audience Prize Award of the City of Bad Tölz during the Bad Tölz International String Quartet Competition, the Esterházy Foundation Special Prize for best interpretation of a Haydn string quartet and were awarded the Bronze Medal Prize in the 2024 Fischoff Competition.

Learn more about the Erinys Quartet.

Lauded as “exquisite” by The Philadelphia Inquirer and “a pianist of sterling artistry” by Gramophone, Michelle Cann is one of the most sought-after pianists of her generation. Recent engagements include appearances with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, The Cleveland Orchestra, The Philadelphia Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the National Symphony Orchestra, and the Orquestra Sinfônica Municipal de São Paulo. Her honors include the Sphinx Medal of Excellence and the Andrew Wolf Chamber Music Award. In 2024, she was named the inaugural Christel DeHaan Artistic Partner of the American Pianists Association, responsible for artistic oversight of the American Pianists Awards.

Highlights of Cann’s 2024-25 season include appearances with the San Francisco Symphony, the Cincinnati Symphony, and London’s Philharmonia Orchestra. She performs collaboratively with the Dover Quartet, the Imani Winds, and cellist Tommy Mesa. Her solo and collaborative recital appearances include the 92nd Street Y, New York; University of Chicago Presents; Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music; Duke Arts at Duke University; the Royal Conservatory of Music; Shriver Hall Concert Series; and Spivey Hall. She also performs a recital as the headline artist at the National Conference of the Music Teachers National Association.

Recognized as a leading interpreter of the piano music of Florence Price, Cann performed the New York City premiere of Price’s Piano Concerto in One Movement with The Dream Unfinished Orchestra in July 2016 and the Philadelphia premiere with The Philadelphia Orchestra and Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin in February 2021. Her recording of the concerto with the New York Youth Symphony won a Grammy Award in 2023 for Best Orchestral Performance. Her acclaimed debut solo album Revival, featuring music by Price and Margaret Bonds, was released in May 2023 on the Curtis Studio label. With soprano Karen Slack she recorded Beyond the Years, released in July 2024, featuring 19 unpublished songs composed by Price. She has also recorded two Price piano quintets with the Catalyst Quartet as a part of the quartet’s UNCOVERED series. A champion of emerging talent, Cann and cellist Tommy Mesa recorded Our Stories, an album of new works by five living composers of color, which was released in November 2023.

A celebrated chamber musician, Cann has collaborated with leading artists including the Catalyst, Dover, and Juilliard string quartets, violinists Timothy and Nikki Chooi, soprano Karen Slack, and mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges. She regularly performs duo piano repertoire with her sister, pianist Kimberly Cann, as the Cann Duo. She has appeared as co-host and collaborative pianist with NPR’s From The Top, collaborating with actor/conductor Damon Gupton, violinist Leila Josefowicz, and violinist and MacArthur Fellow Vijay Gupta. Cann’s numerous media appearances include PBS Great Performances’ Now Hear This hosted by Scott Yoo and Living the Classical Life with host Zsolt Bognár.

Embracing a dual role as performer and pedagogue, Cann is frequently invited to teach master classes, give lecture-demonstrations, and lead teaching residencies. Recent residencies include the Gilmore International Keyboard Festival and the National Conference of the Music Teachers National Association. She has recorded lessons for tonebase, the popular piano lesson platform. She has also served on the juries of the Cleveland International Piano Competition, the Kauffman Music Center International Youth Piano Competition, and the piano competition of the Music Academy of the West.

Cann holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in piano performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she studied with Paul Schenly and Dr. Daniel Shapiro, and an Artist’s Diploma from the Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied with Robert McDonald. She joined the Curtis piano faculty in 2020 as the inaugural Eleanor Sokoloff Chair in Piano Studies. She is also on the piano faculty of the Manhattan School of Music.

Listen now to Michelle Cann’s solo album Revival, Music of Price and Bonds, by scanning the QR code below using the camera on your mobile phone. More information at Curtis.edu/revival.