The Telegraph Quartet, which formed in San Francisco in 2013, has been in residence at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance (SMTD) since fall 2024. 

David Gier, dean of SMTD and Paul C. Boylan Collegiate Professor of Music, said at the time of the announcement:

I’m delighted that the School of Music, Theatre & Dance is engaging the Telegraph Quartet for this residency, which will beautifully complement the dynamic work of our resident faculty in the Departments of Strings and Chamber Music. Our students will benefit significantly from sustained and focused interactions with this gifted professional quartet that will help them develop as chamber musicians and envision and plan for their lives as working musicians.

Eric Chin and Joseph Maile (violins), Pei-Ling Lin (viola), and Jeremiah Shaw (cello) have worked with student chamber-music groups and conducted studio classes/seminars for the most part, but there have also been several opportunities for the public to see concerts by the group, which The New York Times described as “full of elegance and pinpoint control."

The Telegraph Quartet will perform again at U-M on Friday, January 23, at 7:30 pm, at Stamps Auditorium in the Walgreen Drama Center. The event is free and open to the public; no tickets required. (A livestream will also be available.)

The program will include Franz Joseph Haydn’s String Quartet in C Major, op. 54, no. 2 and Béla Bartók’s String Quartet no. 2, as well as Derrick Skye’s American Mirror, Part 1.

"American Mirror reflects on the coming together of cultures in our society," Skye said of his composition in a press release, "which consists of many generations and descendants of refugees, immigrants, and slaves, and how intercultural collaborations are essential to the well-being of American society.”

None of those composers is featured on Telegraph Quartet's third album, 2025's Edge of the Storm, which continues the group's focus on 20th- and 21st-century repertoire, including interpretations of works by Grażyna Bacewicz (String Quartet no. 4), Benjamin Britten (String Quartet no. 1 in D Major, Op. 25), and Mieczysław Weinberg (String Quartet no. 6 in E Minor, Op. 35). (Read an interview in The Strad with Telegraph Quartet about the new album.)

Check out Edge of the Storm, plus some live earlier live performances of works by Haydn, Bartók, and Weinberg.

The Telegraph Quartet will perform at Stamps Auditorium in the Walgreen Drama Center, 1226 Murfin Avenue, Ann Arbor, on Friday, January 23, at 7:30 pm. The event is free and open to the public; no tickets required. (A livestream will also be available.)