Telling Stories Through Sound: The Verona Quartet and Mendelssohn's String Quartets

The Verona Quartet—Oberlin’s Quartet-in-Residence since fall 2020—released Felix Mendelssohn: String Quartets, Op. 12 & 13 on Oberlin Music on August 14, 2026. 

Violinists Jonathan Ong and Dorothy Ro, violist Abigail Rojansky ’11, and cellist Jonathan Dorman take their ensemble’s name from Verona, Italy—a city famously known as the setting for Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. For the past decade, the Verona Quartet has drawn inspiration from that tradition of storytelling, exploring how stories can connect cultures, traditions, and artistic forms. 

It feels only fitting, then, that this new record—on the Oberlin Music label—features Mendelssohn’s earliest quartets, composed in the years surrounding his own tribute to Shakespeare: his Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

The Verona Quartet brings together musicians from four countries across three continents. Together, its members are building what they call their “Global Storybook,” a body of work centered on carrying stories from one artistic form into another. 

Recent chapters include Cheng Jin Koh’s Mountains of Echoing Halls, scored for string quartet, yangqin, and Chinese ribbon dance and commissioned by the Smithsonian Institution for the centennial of the Freer Gallery of Art. A project with pipa virtuoso Wu Man explores questions of home, memory, and cultural identity, while a program built around Hamlet sets Shakespeare’s language—spoken onstage by an actor—alongside Beethoven, Mendelssohn, and Schubert. 

The quartet’s recording of Mendelssohn’s Op. 12 and Op. 13 offers a natural first chapter: music in which storytelling is already embedded within the notes.

“Mendelssohn was weaving his own songs into his quartets before he was 20,” the quartet says. “In the past decade, we have aspired toward that same instinct: carrying stories from one form into another. Recording these works felt less like a change of direction than a return to the source.” 

Known for its versatility, the Verona Quartet regularly performs contemporary music and collaborates with artists across disciplines. The ensemble has received more than a few awards, including the Chamber Music America’s Cleveland Quartet Award in 2020 and the Fischoff National Chamber Music Association’s Educator Award 2025, and was described as  “outstanding” by The New York Times. 

At Oberlin, there are plenty of opportunities to work with and see the Verona Quartet perform. Members offer lessons and coaching, and the group returns to the stage September 30 for a recital with Associate Professor of Cello Dmitry Kouzov in Kulas Recital Hall. 

Oberlin Music is the official recording label of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Oberlin Music titles are available through Apple Music,  Spotify, and online retailers everywhere.