Biography

Silvia Santa María, violin 

Cecilia García, violin 

Sergio Carrillo, viola

Orlando Espinosa, cello

With over twenty years of artistic trajectory, the CCJW String Quartet has become a benchmark of chamber music in Mexico and Latin America. Rooted in the classical string quartet tradition, it has evolved into an ensemble with an outstanding contemporary and avant-garde repertoire, focusing primarily on Latin American music.

In 2000, the Quartet won First Prize at the Chamber Music Competition of the City of Salamanca, Guanajuato, Mexico, and has since performed on the most prestigious stages throughout the country.

Its repertoire also includes works for string quartet and symphony orchestra, which it has performed alongside the Mexico City Philharmonic Orchestra, the Zacatecas Philharmonic Orchestra, the Aguascalientes Symphony Orchestra, the Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería, and the Heredia Symphony Orchestra in Costa Rica. National and international tours have taken the Quartet across nearly all of Mexico, as well as to the United States, Canada, Latin America, and Europe.

The CCJW has shared the stage with distinguished artists such as Jerry Horner and Christine Vlak (viola), Vincent Lhermet (accordion), Luis Humberto Ramos, Thomas Jones and Tara Bouman (clarinet), Roberto Limón and Rodrigo Neftalí (guitar), Wendy Holdaway (bassoon), Horacio Franco, Luis Julio Toro, Megan Maiorana and Alejandro Escuer (flute), Michiko Otaki, Marta García Renart, Leonardo Gell, Ana María Tradatti, May Phang and Jorge Federico Osorio (piano), Jesús Castro-Balbi, Bozena Slawinska, Juan Hermida, Katie Schlaikjer (cello), Eva Gruesser (violin), and the Cuarteto Latinoamericano and Penderecki Quartet.

As heirs to the teaching of their mentor Jerry Horner, the CCJW stands out for its significant work in music education, inspiring countless young musicians and artists through educational concerts, lectures, chamber music and composition workshops, and its annual Intensive String Quartet Course.

With the support of Mexico’s System of Support for Creation and Cultural Projects (SACPC), through the México en Escena program, the Quartet organizes an annual composition competition for string quartets, now with over ten editions, whose winning works have been widely performed and recorded.

The CCJW String Quartet is formed by Silvia Santa María and Cecilia García (violins), Sergio Carrillo (viola), and Orlando Espinosa (cello).