The Department of Chamber Music presents a performance by Bear Quartet, winner of the 2025-2026 Gustave Rosseels Endowed Prize for String Quartet. The members of this group are Luke Pisani and Lauryn Varnell, violins; Anna Sykes, viola; and Ami Matsushita, cello, and they are coached by Prof. Kathryn Votapek.

In 1984, Department of Strings Professor Emeritus Gustave Rosseels and his wife, Jacqueline Rosseels, established an expendable fund to provide an annual award to four student players of an outstanding string quartet at the School of Music, Theatre & Dance. In 2021, generous donors, including an SMTD alumnus who studied with Professor Rosseels, endowed the fund to support students participating in string quartets and to recognize Professor Rosseels’ contributions to the art form in perpetuity.