The viol quartet PARTHENIA brings early music into the present with its repertoire that animates ancient and fresh-commissioned contemporary works with a ravishing sound and a remarkable sense of ensemble. These “local early-music stars,” hailed by The New Yorker and music critics throughout the world, are “one of the brightest lights in New York’s early-music scene.” Parthenia is presented in concerts across America, and produces its own series in New York City, collaborating regularly with the world’s foremost early music specialists.

The quartet has been featured in prestigious festivals and series as wide-ranging as Music Before 1800, the Harriman-Jewell Series, Maverick Concerts, the Regensburg Tage Alter Musik, the Shalin Lui Performing Arts Center, the Pierpont Morgan Library, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Yale Center for British Art, Columbia University’s Miller Theatre, and the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Parthenia’s most recent tour was to Venice, Italy, with soprano Sherezade Panthaki, to perform at The Brooklyn Rail’s collateral event at the 2019 Venice Biennale. Parthenia’s repertoire ranges from the golden age of the viol in Elizabethan England, to the complete viol fantasies of Henry Purcell, to Al Naharot Bavel which features works by Jewish Renaissance composers, and the ensemble commissions and premieres new works regularly.

Parthenia has recorded As it Fell on a Holie Eve - Music for an Elizabethan Christmas, with soprano Julianne Baird, Les Amours de Mai, with Ms. Baird and violinist Robert Mealy, A Reliquary for William Blake, Within the Labyrinth, and The Flaming Fire, with vocalist Ryland Angel and keyboard player Dongsok Shin. Parthenia’s newest CD release features composers Kristin Norderval, Frances White, and Tawnie Olson: Nothing Proved: New works for viols, voice, and electronics. 

UPDATED FEBRUARY 2023. PLEASE DESTROY ALL PREVIOUS VERSIONS.