Toomai String Quintet: Cuban Premieres

The Toomai String Quintet is an ensemble devoted to playing a variety of musical traditions from around the world, creating its own string arrangements, and commissioning new works. The award-winning group has been engaging audiences across the United States for over a decade, performing concerts in collaboration with presenters such as Carnegie Hall, 92nd Street Y, and the Juilliard School, among others. 

Central to Toomai's mission is the expansion of the Latin American repertoire for string ensemble. Toomai has arranged or commissioned over 20 works by Latin American composers. The ensemble also facilitates educational workshops that teach young people creative approaches to music through the lens of Cuban and Brazilian traditions. In 2018, Toomai released its debut album, Cuerdas Cubanas; in 2024, the group will release a new album of Brazilian music, Passos Brasileiros. 

Formed in 2007 at the Juilliard School, the quintet is named after Rudyard Kipling’s short story “Toomai of the Elephants” in which a young boy journeys into the jungle to witness the dance of the wild elephants. The Toomai String Quintet aspires to cultivate a similar sense of curiosity and discovery by searching for diverse music and sharing it with its audience. The quintet members are violinists Emilie-Anne Gendron and Alex Fortes, violist George Meyer, cellist Hamilton Berry, and bassist Andrew Roitstein.