The Pandan Quartet is a dynamic young string quartet based in the Oberlin Conservatory of Music since 2023. They have been the recipients of Flint Initiative, Shansi, and Oberlin Winter Term Grants. The Pandan Quartet was invited to participate in the 2024 Singapore Chamber Music Festival, where they performed to critical acclaim for local audiences, renowned artists, and various international embassies. They are honored to have had the opportunity to pave the way for more academic, musical, and cultural exchanges between East Asia and Oberlin College. Later in 2024, the Pandan Quartet was invited to be the Artists in Residence for the Off The Hook Arts: Music Spoke Concert Series, located in Ft. Collins, Colorado. Working alongside the Dalí Quartet, the Pandan Quartet performed a range of different concerts, including multiple educational and outreach performances for families and children, various donor events to help support the festival, and more formal concerts. The Pandan Quartet was invited to Banff Center for the Winter 2025 Musicians in Residence where they will work with the Kronos Quartet among other renowned artists. Other quartet projects include learning two of the Kronos Quartet’s “50 for the future” pieces and performing in senior care facilities. 

The Pandan Quartet has worked with a host of incredible artists, including Tabbea Zimmerman, the Takacs Quartet, the Dalí Quartet, the AOI trio, the Verona Quartet, Sunny Yang (Kronos Quartet), Kirsten Doctor (Cavani Quartet), Sibbi Bernhardsson (Pacifica Quartet), Bill van der Sloot (Villa Marteau Quintet), Peter Slowik, and Leslie Tan.

The Pandan Quartet is generously supported by the Cyril and Elizabeth Challice Fund for Musicians, and the Banff Centre Artists' Awards.

Born in the Black Forest, she grew up between Germany, Uganda, and Burkina Faso. She began with violin and piano lessons at the age of 6. In 2008, she started her artistic career in violin at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Mendelssohn-Bartholdy in Leipzig and graduated in 2014 with the highest honors. In 2009, she also began Theatre Studies at the University of Leipzig, completing her degree in 2014. 

At the end of 2014, she was hired as a violinist by the Orquesta Estable del Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires where she won a stability position in a competition in 2018. She has been contracted by the Centro de Experimentación del Teatro Colón for various chamber music formats.

Since 2017, she has been a co-founder and concertmaster of the String Orchestra Cuerdas del Plata and is also the composer and director of the string quartet Azabache. With Azabache, she has toured Europe, performing in various venues and festivals, including the Tango Festival in Tarbes (France).

In February 2023, she won the position of tango violin teacher in the advanced cycle at the Escuela de Música Popular Avellaneda (Empa). She conducts tango seminars for string players in Argentina and abroad. 

Katharina Deissler is generously supported by the Frederick Louis Crosby Memorial Endowment.

Adriana began her violin studies at the age of 10 with Prof. Santiago de Angulo (Colombia). Subsequently, her teachers included Ricardo Rodríguez, Norberto Minces, José Bondar, and Daniel Robuschi. She participated in violin and chamber music seminars and masterclasses with renowned teachers such as Felix Olschofka, Jack Glatzer, Haydeé Schvartz , Ulla Benz, Catalyst String Quartet, Marmen String Quartet, among others.

Additionally, Adriana took part in the 2018 Santa Catarina Music Festival (Brazil) in the String Quartet program, under the direction of the Arianna String Quartet (United States). She is currently in her final year of the Bachelor's degree in Musical Arts at Universidad Nacional de las Artes. She has worked as a violinist for the Orchestra of the Teatro Argentino de La Plata, and since March 2018, has been a permanent member of the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional in the first violin section. Since 2017, Adriana has been a member of the Cuarteto Arkhé, performing in various venues in Buenos Aires, including Templo Libertad, Usina del Arte, and Salón de Honor (Centro Cultural Kirchner), among others. Internationally, she has performed at the Teatro del Sodre (Uruguay) and Teatro Pequenho (Santa Catarina).

Adriana Miranda Torrico is generously supported by the Raul Urtasun/Frances Harley Argentina Artists Scholarship.

Esteban began his music education at the Municipal School of Music of Olavarría and the Ernesto Mogávero Municipal Conservatory. At 18, he moved to Buenos Aires to pursue a Bachelor’s degree in Composition at the Faculty of Arts and Musical Sciences at the Universidad Católica Argentina (UCA), where he was awarded a scholarship for academic excellence. Simultaneously, he studied composition under the guidance of Julio Viera and Julián Peralta, and viola with Elizabeth Ridolfi, Claudio Medina, Adrián Felizia, Javier Cárdenas, Rolando Prusak, and Rafael Gintoli. Additionally, he completed the Viola program at the Universidad Nacional de las Artes (UNA). In 2020, he obtained a yoga teaching certification.

As a violist, Esteban is currently a member of the Orquesta de Música Argentina Juan de Dios Filiberto and the Municipal Symphony Orchestra of Olavarría, where he has also performed as a soloist. He is part of the string quartet Azabache Tango, where he contributes as a composer and producer. He has collaborated as a violist with prominent ensembles, including the Teatro Colón’s Orquesta Estable, the Teatro Colón Chamber Opera, Teatro Avenida Opera, and the Symphony Orchestra of the University of Cuyo, among others. Esteban has participated in renowned festivals and workshops such as the Santa Catarina Music Festival (FEMUSC) and Música Maestra, taught by Diego Schissi. In the past year, he recorded Le Grand Tango and his own arrangement of Vuelvo al Sur, both composed by Astor Piazzolla.

Esteban Fioroni is generously supported by Raul Urtasun/Frances Harley Argentina Artists Scholarship.

Bruno began his cello studies at the age of 15 with professors Gastón Colloca and Myriam Santucci. In 2007, he entered the Universidad Nacional de las Artes (UNA). In 2011, he continued his studies at the Royal Conservatory of Liège (Belgium) under the guidance of Professor Jean-Pol Zanutel, where he graduated in 2014. Bruno decided to further his education at the Brussels and Antwerp Conservatories and is currently studying privately with Professor Diego Fainguersch.

Since 2017, Bruno has regularly performed with the Sinfónica Nacional, the Orchestra of the Teatro Argentino de La Plata, and the Orquesta Filarmonica de Buenos Aires. He also collaborates with the Teatro Colón's Chamber Opera and the the Centro de Experimentación del Teatro Colón. He is a founding member of the NEO Ensemble and the Hopper Ensemble (BE).

Since the end of 2016, Bruno has been teaching in the program of the Orquestas Escuelas of the City of Buenos Aires.

Bruno Bragato Diaz is generously supported by the Raul Urtasun/Frances Harley Argentina Artists Scholarship.

Lucas Crawford is the author of four poetry books that all kind of wanted to be lyrics: Sideshow Concessions (Invisible Publishing, 2015), The High Line Scavenger Hunt (U of Calgary, 2018), Belated Bris of the Brainsick (Nightwood Editions, 2019), and Muster Points (U of Calgary, 2023). His long poem about maritime music and its queer provenances, “Failed Seances for Rita MacNeil,” was widely republished, including in Best Canadian Poetry 2015. With Morgan Sea, he is author of “Report from the Interior,” a poetry-comic that may become a music video soon (crossing fingers).

By day, Lucas is Canada Research Chair of Transgender Creativity and Mental Health at the Augustana Faculty of the University of Alberta. He leads “Rewriting Ourselves: Poetry in the Psych Ward,” a collaborative pilot project offering free poetry workshops to psychiatric inpatients in 2025.

At Banff, Lucas will spend mornings tidying a poetry book called “Leonard Cohen is Starving!,” and writing an accompanying academic article about Cohen’s appetites. During the evenings, Lucas will finetune some of his own songs – poppy queer poetic folk of guitar/vocal/euphonium. 

Lucas Crawford is generously supported by the Banff Centre Artists' Awards.