Ingrid Keller believes in the power of a string quartet.
“String quartets, among string players, are kind of the Everest of the repertory,” she explains. “Every composer that composes for a symphony is thinking first of the string quartet. Basically, the symphony is the steroids. You add the brass, you add percussion, you add everything around it, but the core of the music is that violins are the top part, violas in the middle, cello, and then bass doubles the cello.”
On Friday, Keller will host Attacca Quartet, one of the nation’s premiere string quartets, at St. Christopher’s School’s recently opened Louis F. Ryan Recital Hall & Arts Center. The performance is part of the Belvedere Series, Keller’s ongoing effort to bring headlining classical musicians to play chamber music in Richmond.
Among other credits, Attacca Quartet has won two Grammys, backed Billie Eilish on her latest album and performed the soundtrack to Ken Burns’ 2024 documentary about Leonardo da Vinci. Founded at Juilliard in 2003, the group has received raves from NPR, The New York Times and The Washington Post. Part of what makes Attacca unique is how the group bridges classical music with new and popular music from all genres.
“They’re champions of the traditional canon, but they perform and commission a lot of new music,” says Keller, a concert pianist whose Belvedere Series held its first concert in May 2022. “It’s not your wedding string quartet. This is the best of the best, and I feel very lucky that they could come here and fit it in their schedule.”
Originally from Boston, Keller holds a Doctor of Music degree from Indiana University where she studied under renowned pianist Menahem Pressler. She’s performed at the Kennedy Center, played with Yo-Yo Ma and taught at institutions that include the College of William and Mary and the University of Richmond. Keller and her husband moved to Richmond in 2016 to be closer to family.
After the pandemic hit, Keller took a webinar hosted by Nick Photinos of Eighth Blackbird on how to start a nonprofit and began putting together the Belvedere Series. Most of the series’ events are hosted at the historic Marburg House in the Carillon/Byrd Park neighborhood, which Keller and her husband own.
The Belvedere Series’ 2025-26 season will see world premieres for composers Zachary Wadsworth, Polina Nazaykinskaya and Kati Agócs, a performance by string quartet Owls, and presentations of Maurice Ravel’s Piano Trio, Antonín Dvořák’s E flat Piano Quartet, and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s “Souvenir de Florence.” In 2027, Keller hopes to present a chamber music festival in Richmond.
Part of the appeal of chamber music, Keller says, is that it offers an entry point for the classical-curious who might feel daunted by attending a full symphony.
“I feel like there is this invisible boundary and separation between audience and musicians,” she says of full symphonies. “Chamber music was written to by played in a room. Everyone uses the word ‘intimate,’ but it really is. You’re really getting to know the performers. You can hear them breathe; you can smell their sweat. You become part of this immersive experience.”
As chamber musicians perform without a conductor, Keller says they’re more collaborative, which also draws in the audience.
“You get really sucked into what is happening,” she says. “The music, it’s just as dramatic. It can have all the pomp that a symphony can, but it’s just a different scale.”
On Friday, Attacca Quartet’s performance will begin with Joseph Haydn’s String Quartet in G major, Op. 54, No. 1. The Austrian composer is considered the father of the string quartet in its present form.
“If you think of Haydn, he’s kind of a master of surprise and wit and humor,” Keller says. “It’s a really nice opener. It will sound very traditional and classical.”
Second up is Caroline Shaw’s Three Essays. Shaw, a Pulitzer winner, collaborated with Attacca Quartet on the albums “Orange” and “Evergreen”; both albums won Grammy Awards for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance in 2020 and 2023, respectively. Three Essays appears on the latter album.
“There are some sounds in this music that sound like she’s distorting or bending things in your ear,” Keller says. “She’s fond of these really cool effects. It’s also just beautiful music.”
After an intermission, the program will close with Felix Mendelssohn’s String Quartet No. 6 in F minor, Op. 80. The work is the last major piece that the German composer completed before he died in 1847.
“He wrote it right after his sister died,” Keller says. “It’s really dark and dramatic. The slow movement is just this heartbreaking adagio.”
Keller, who’s previously seen Attacca Quartet perform in Paris and Washington, D.C., says audiences are in for a treat.
“It’s electric, that’s all I can say,” she says of their playing. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
The Belvedere Series’ presents the Attacca Quartet on Friday, June 13 at St. Christopher’s School’s Louis F. Ryan Recital Hall, 6010 Fergusson Road. 7 p.m. Tickets are $40. Student tickets are free with the code STUDENTTIX. For more information visit belvedereseries.org.
