Hailed for its playing of “tremendous heart and beauty” (The Strad) and the “pure pleasure” of its performances (Steve Smith, Night After Night), the Ivalas Quartet has been changing the face of classical music since 2017 with a mission to enrich the classical music world by spotlighting past and present BIPOC composers alongside the standard repertory. They have championed the music of Eleanor Alberga, Gabriela Lena Frank, Osvaldo Golijov, Jessie Montgomery, Angélica Negrón, Iván Enrique Rodríguez, Alvin Singleton, and George Walker, and premiered Derrick Skye’s Deliverance through a commission from Caramoor and recorded Carlos Simon’s Warmth from Other Suns for Rising Sun Music. They were the augural Fellowship Ensemble of the Kaufman Music Center in New York City and resident ensemble of the New York Philharmonic’s Very Young Composers program in 2025-2026, and the 2024-2025 Curator/Ensemble of the Schneider Concerts at The New School. The Ivalas Quartet was the Graduate Resident String Quartet at The Juilliard School from 2022 to 2024, where they studied with the Juilliard String Quartet. They were previously in residence at the University of Colorado-Boulder under the mentorship of the Takács Quartet. In turn, they have devoted themselves to educational and community outreach, working in tandem with such organizations as the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, New Latin Wave, and countless public schools throughout the U.S.