The Balourdet Quartet
The internationally acclaimed Balourdet Quartet is in its second year as the Seattle Chamber Music Society's String Quartet in Residence. Following its previous 2025-26 collaboration with the Memory Hub, the quartet is returning for special community performances.
The Seattle Chamber Music Society's inaugural String Quartet-in-Residence, the Balourdet Quartet, partnered with the Memory Hub and its community partners to embed in existing programs and co-design new music-based programming for people living with memory loss and their care partners. In collaboration with UW Nursing PhD candidate Sarah McKiddy, the quartet worked with participants and local dementia specialists from Fall 2025 - Spring 2026 to pilot models for community settings. The ethos and format of chamber music — interactive, intimate, and rapport-focused — offers rich avenues for participation, reciprocity, and co-creation in the memory loss community.
Listening & Learning: We are exploring current Memory Hub programs to learn what resonates and where new opportunities for engagement and adaptation exist.
Centering the perspectives of the community and musicians: Our project involves focus groups with people living with memory loss and care partners; and focus groups and ongoing interviews with the musicians and organizational teams.
Co-designing program development
Creating an implementation guide, including training, fidelity, scheduling, and adaptation tips
Providing public-facing resources
Building a partnership model: a practical blueprint for arts–health collaborations that other cities can adapt
Arts Partner: Seattle Chamber Music Society (SCMS) and the Balourdet Quartet (String Quartet-in-Residence).
Community Setting: The Memory Hub, a dementia-inclusive, ADA-accessible community center run by the UW Memory and Brain Wellness Center
Advisors: Community Advisory Board, including dyads of people living with memory loss and care partners, clinicians, a neuropsychologist, faculty in music/ethnomusicology/sociology, and the senior advisor from AARP’s Brain Health Action Collaborative and the CEO of the Gerontological Society of America (GSA).
UW research collaborators:
Sarah McKiddy, BSN, UW PhD Candidate in Nursing Science
Leo Freedman, UW undergraduate in Ethnomusicology
The Balourdet Quartet is acclaimed for their vibrant energy and masterful blend of technical precision and emotional depth that brings a fresh perspective to both beloved classics and modern compositions. The Quarter members include Angela Bae (Violin), Justin DeFilippis (Violin), Benjamin Zannoni (Viola), Russell Houston (Cello).
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About the UW Research Collaborators
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Sarah McKiddy is a PhD Candidate in Nursing Science with a background in both nursing and music. Her dissertation employs implementation science to explore how a performing arts organization can collaborate with a dementia-specific community center to co-design with and embed professional musicians for memory loss programming. More broadly, her work explores how creative practices such as music can be infused into community and clinical settings to help sustain or reshape a sense of self and well-being across the lifespan.
Leo Freedman, an undergraduate in ethnomusicology at the University of Washington, is a collaborator on this study, leading an embedded audio project. He will be producing a series of soundscapes (his prior work was recently featured by the UW Perspectives series) by recording the acoustic environments of live engagements between the musicians and community members, and layering these recordings using audio processing tools. The soundscape series aims to capture the unique and spontaneous ambience of the events. The project serves as a complementary method of documenting research and an avenue for engaging and disseminating its findings with new audiences.
Upcoming Events
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Balourdet Quartet Community Performance
Tuesday, October 13, 2026 at 3:00pm
The Balourdet Quartet will join the Memory Hub community for an engaging afternoon of chamber music.