“Like all great chamber groups, the Catalyst Quartet is beautiful to watch, like a family in lively conversation at the dinner table: anticipating, interrupting, changing subjects.” -The New York Times
“The Catalyst takes a rather old-school approach to its music-making, phrasing without excessive edginess, producing a generally mellow sonority with a big, rich bass, reminiscent of great quartets of the past such as the Guarneri and Budapest.” -Richmond Times Dispatch
“In a program of overflowing energy, the Catalyst Quartet… performed single movements from the second quartets of Michael Nyman and Alberto Ginastera, each with relentless rhythmic force.” -Chicago
“Some complain that classical music was written by dead white guys, is performed by white musicians and listened to by white senior citizens. Luckily, there are groups like the Catalyst Quartet to combat this trend. They serve not only to foster performer diversity but also to promote works by non-white composers… melodies emerged from between the cracks of tightly nested repeating cells and snaked in and out of the pulsing framework, occasionally taking wayward dips before retreating to allow a new theme to materialize.” -Oberlin Review
“New and old works dotted the playbill… The Haydn war-horse got a fresh take. Their energy shone in the perfect ensemble unity of the opening Allegro con spirito movement, and continued to present a remarkably mature Adagio second movement. The concluding movement was nothing short of fantastic.” -Journal Star Lincoln, NE
“The Catalyst Quartet offered a dynamic performance of Joan Tower’s lyrical, melancholic ‘In Memory,’ inspired by events of Sept. 11, 2011.” -The New York Times
“Goddard’s Allaqi, performed by the Catalyst Quartet stood out. I was moved and enthralled by the quartet’s performance, seeing the notes lifted high into the room, painting this grand picture.” -Splash Magazine
“The Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival’s commitment to new music plays out throughout the two-week event. Played energetically by the Catalyst Quartet, the String Quartet No. 4 (2011) packed a lot into three short, tightly argued movements. The music soared in the sweetly nostalgic finale.” -Detroit Free Press, MI
“The Catalyst Quartet playing was a continual source of pleasure...” -Spokesman Review
“Invariably energetic and finely burnished…The Catalyst Quartet played the Allegro Rustico movement from Ginastera’s Quartet No. 2 with an earthy vigor that made you wonder why whoever assembles Sphinx’s programs did not have them offer the complete work.” -The New York Times
“The concert ended with the remarkable Brahms String Quartet No. 1 in C Minor, Op. 51, No. 1. The energy and drama in this great work, plus its supremely effective writing for the instruments, was totally absorbing and earned a standing ovation.” -Peninsula Reviews
“The Catalyst Quartet took the stage for Osvaldo Golijov’s ‘Tenebrae.’ It’s a meditative work whose floating mists and cosmic ambiguities can, in the wrong hands, seem like music to do yoga by, but the Catalyst players turned in a serious, convincing account. The tone shifted from dark to light when the quartet launched into ‘Strum,’ a hugely enjoyable new work by Jessie Montgomery. Turbulent, wildly colorful and exploding with life, ‘Strum’ sounded like a handful of American folk melodies tossed into a strong wind, cascading and tumbling joyfully around one another.” -Washington Post
“Classical music is for everyone – or, at least, it should be. That’s the message the Catalyst Quartet is bringing to Houston.” -Houston Chronicle
“Catalyst Quartet members passed for country fiddlers and even a Brazilian samba band in a recital of folk-based string quartet works. The most compelling pieces were contemporary takes on non-Western folk traditions. Stirred by his encounters with violence during a trip to Israel, Argentine composer Osvaldo Golijov drew on Middle Eastern musical traditions for Tenebrae. In one particularly chilling passage, violist Paul Laraia emulated a traditional lament, while first violinist Karla Donehew-Perez provided an echo effect at the end of each phrase, playing an obsessive melodic figure as she shifted her bowing from the bridge upward toward the fingerboard. The resulting, eerie tone color sounded like it had been produced in an electronic studio rather than by an acoustic violin.” -SF Classical Voice