The Rosco String Quartet has a passion for enriching the Salt Lake City community and surrounding areas through exceptional chamber music performance and education. Focusing on their own community more than extensive travels, it is of highest importance to the members of the Rosco String Quartet that they provide quality chamber music for Salt Lake City and Utah. Performing everything from classic masterpieces to lesser-known works and new compositions, the Rosco String Quartet frequently collaborates with and highlights other local musicians and composers of the highest caliber. In addition to public recitals, the Rosco String Quartet offers benefit concerts to assist in raising funds for Utah charities, and educational workshops for middle-school and high-school orchestras. Individual members of the Rosco String Quartet also perform locally with Ballet West, Utah Symphony, Sinfonia Salt Lake, and Utah Chamber Artists, and teach at the Gifted Music School, Brigham Young University School of Music, and the Utah Valley University Department of Music.
Since forming in 2012, the Rosco String Quartet has performed across the United States and established itself as one of the premier string quartets in the state of Utah. They have studied with some of the most prominent chamber musicians in the world including members of the Juilliard, Emerson, Tokyo, Muir, Brentano, and American String Quartets. The Rosco String Quartet received attention on a national level when they were invited to participate in the Juilliard Quartet Seminar and the Robert Mann String Quartet Institute in New York City, and won First Place at both the 2014 MTNA National String Chamber Music Competition in Chicago and the 2014 University of Utah Chamber Music Competition. They were also placed as Finalists in the 2015 American Prize Chamber Music Competition. Drawing attention within Salt Lake City’s musical community, the Rosco String Quartet was invited to be the premier quartet for the University of Utah Chamber Music Workshop and was named the Young Artist Quartet-in-Residence for the 2013-2014 NOVA Chamber Music Series. They premiered new compositions by several Utah-based composers when they were featured in a concert by the Salty Cricket Composer’s Collective and were invited to perform at the 2014 Utah Symphony’s Deer Valley Music Festival in the Emerging Young Artists and Composers program. Other notable performances include the Assembly Hall on Temple Square, Utah Museum of Fine Arts Chamber Music Series, and the “Highway 89” program for Classical 89 radio.
As a founding member of the Rosco String Quartet, Jakob Hofer won the 2014 MTNA National Chamber Music Competition, was placed as a finalist in the American Prize competition, performed at Utah Symphony's Deer Valley Music Festival, and participated in the Robert Mann Quartet Institute and the Juilliard String Quartet Seminar in New York City. Accepted at age 16 to Juilliard’s International Summer Music Academy in Leipzig, Germany, Jakob Hofer has since participated in numerous masterclasses and received instruction from Renaud Capucon, Stephen Clapp, James Stern, Aaron Berofsky, and Charles Castleman. He has been coached by some of the world’s greatest chamber musicians including members of the Juilliard, Emerson, Takacs, Muir, Brentano, and Miro String Quartets. Dr. Hofer has performed as concertmaster of the Utah Philharmonia, Loudoun Symphony, Peabody Concert Orchestra, and as a member of the York Symphony and the Round Top Festival Orchestra. He is currently on faculty at the Gifted Music School and Utah Valley University. Dr. Hofer is trained in baroque performance, orchestral conducting, and often premiers new compositions with the Salty Cricket Composers Collective. Jakob Hofer completed a Bachelor of Music degree in violin performance and a Master of Music degree in violin performance and pedagogy at the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University where he studied with the acclaimed chamber musician, Violaine Melancon. Most recently he completed his dissertation on the Bloch Violin Concerto and received his Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Utah.
Andrea Ashdown began her musical studies at the age of five and has since become passionately engaged in performing and teaching. An avid chamber musician, she has notably studied and performed with Peter Salaff and members of the Cavani Quartet. Andrea also enjoys gaining extensive experience as an orchestral player, performing at venues such as Severance Hall, Alice Tully Hall, David Geffen Hall, Carnegie Hall, and Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Japan. Her principal teachers include David Chan, Li Lin, and Stephen Rose. She received her Bachelor of Music with Academic Honors from the Cleveland Institute of Music, and her Master of Music from the Juilliard School.
Sunny Johnson is a committed performer, collaborator, and educator in the Salt Lake Valley. She is a founding member of the Rosco String Quartet and has dedicated a large portion of her career to chamber music. Her passion for chamber music began while studying with the Fry Street Quartet at Utah State University, where she participated in a unique and immersive string quartet program. Later, as violist of the Rosco String Quartet, she attended the Juilliard Quartet Seminar, the Robert Mann String Quartet Workshop, and the Deer Valley Emerging Quartets and Composers Program, and studied with prestigious musicians such as the Muir Quartet, Joan Tower, Philip Setzer, Robert Mann, Nicholas Mann, Joel Krosnick, and Ronald Copes. The ensemble also won the 2014 National MTNA String Chamber Competition and were finalists in the 2015 American Prize Competition.
Sunny graduated from Utah State University with her Bachelor’s Degree in Viola Performance, where she studied with Bradley Ottesen and Russell Fallstad of the Fry Street Quartet. While there, she played as Principal Viola in the Utah State University Symphony and received the Hansen Scholarship, the Russell Orchestra String Scholarship, and the New Century Scholarship. Sunny earned her Master’s Degree in Viola Performance from the University of Utah, where she studied with the Utah Symphony’s Assistant Principal Violist, Roberta Zalkind.
Dr. Lauren Posey is currently on faculty at the Gifted Music School in Salt Lake City, UT as an Associate Professor of Cello, she is the Adjunct Cello Professor at Salt Lake Community College, as well as serving as the Orchestra Director at the American International School of Utah in Murray, UT. Ms. Posey recently completed a Doctor of Musical Arts degree at Stony Brook University under the tutelage of Colin Carr and was a recipient of the Staller Scholar Award. Ms. Posey began her music training in Salt Lake City with teachers Carey and Elliott Cheney. In 2012 she won the T. Gordon Parks Memorial Collegiate Concerto Competition and the following year she won the 2013 University of Utah Concerto Competition.
Ms. Posey is a founding member of Trio Mondial, a piano trio formed in 2015 and coached by Colin Carr at Stony Brook University. She was a quarterfinalist in the 2016 and 2017 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, attended the 2016 Banff Chamber Music Residency, and performed in the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Masterclass Series for Wu Han.
She graduated in 2011 with her Bachelor of Music degree in Cello Performance from the University of Southern California under the tutelage of Alexander Suleiman, and received a Master of Music degree from the University of Utah in 2014, where she studied with John Eckstein and Elliott Cheney.
Ms. Posey’s cello was made in 2006 by local Salt Lake City maker Carrie Scoggins.