Trillium String Quartet

About Us

Comprised of violinists Sommer Altier and Judith Kim, violist Sydney Link and cellist Amelia Smerz, the Trillium String Quartet formed in April 2024. Trillium is the Graduate Quartet in Residence at Montclair State University and members of the group hold performance degrees from renowned music schools including the Cleveland Institute of Music, Mannes School of Music, and McGill University. Trillium was named semi finalist at the Plowman Chamber Music Competition in spring of 2025. As a quartet, Trillium has worked with both Calidore and Attacca Quartets, as well as received masterclasses and coaching from members of Emerson, Brentano, Catalyst, Lark, Daedalus, and Harlem Quartets. The Quartet has also had the privilege of performing in concert alongside artists such as the Attacca Quartet and Bela Fleck. In January of 2025, Trillium was one of four groups selected to participate in the Calidore String Quartet Seminar, where the quartet received coachings from Calidore members, performed in a masterclass with Paul Watkins, and were showcased in a final recital. This past March they appeared as semi-finalists at the Plowman Competition. TSQ has collaborated directly with living composers such as Daniel Bernard Roumain and Jake Runestad. Trillium has performed at halls and spaces in New York City including Merkin Hall, National Sawdust, and Symphony Space.

In the fall of 2025, Trillium will be the inaugural faculty at the Kinhaven Semester School Program in Vermont where they will give daily coachings and lessons to high school string players and quartets. TSQ is passionate about performing music in our communities, valuing education and outreach as a foundation for increasing access to the arts. The quartet seeks out frequent opportunities to perform outreach and education in the surrounding communities of New Jersey and New York by presenting masterclasses, free concerts and presentations through its various partnerships with Empire State Youth Orchestra (ESYO), Music for All Seasons and private studios. Above all, TSQ seeks to form genuine connections with their music and their audiences.

Musicians

  • Sommer Altier

    Sommer Altier (26) is a New York-based violinist and teacher from Sarasota, Florida. Having played since childhood, Sommer discovered a desire to collaborate with like-minded individuals on a more intimate level. Before joining the Trillium String Quartet in the Spring of 2024, Sommer attended various chamber festivals across the country and participated in masterclasses with renowned chamber artists such as the Danish String Quartet, Time for Three, Parker Quartet, and the Jack Quartet. As an orchestral performer, Sommer has served as a principal player for both of her collegiate orchestras, with performances in a range of venues such as Kaufman Music Center, Symphony Space, Alice Tully Hall, and Carnegie Hall. Sommer received a Bachelor in Music Performance from the Florida State University College of Music and a Master of Music & Instrumental Performance from the Mannes College of Music, under Corinne Stillwell and Rebecca Fischer respectively.

  • Judith Kim

    Violinist Judith Kim was born and raised in Seattle, Washington. She has performed as a substitute in regional orchestras around Ohio and Washington and major orchestras such as the Seattle Symphony Orchestra. After starting violin in her middle school’s orchestra program, she began private studies with Ronald Patterson and continued with him at the University of Washington earning her Bachelor of Music. She then attended the Cleveland Institute of Music for her Master’s Degree instructed by Joan Kwuon, Jessica Lee, and Philip Setzer. Then she became a core member of The Orchestra Now at Bard College where she became a founding member of the Trillium String Quartet which is currently in residence at Montclair State University. Judith enjoys her time away from music birding, hiking, and biking and recently completed her first triathlon. When indoors she enjoys progressing her knitting, baking sweet treats, and hanging out with her cat. 

  • Sydney Link

    Sydney Link (she/her) is the founding violist of Trillium String Quartet, graduate Quartet in residence at Montclair State University in New Jersey. Prior to Trillium, Sydney was a viola fellow at The Orchestra Now in New York. Sydney has performed as principal viola of The Orchestra Now, assistant principal of the Youngstown Symphony, and principal of the CIM Symphony Orchestra and McGill Opera. She holds degrees from Cleveland Institute of Music and McGill University. She has performed at summer festivals including the Bard Music Festival, Napa Valley Blackburn Music Festival, National Orchestral Institute, Chautauqua School of Music, and Orford International Academy. Sydney is a registered violin and viola Suzuki teacher and has been teaching violin and viola for more than ten years. When she’s not playing or teaching the viola, Sydney enjoys spending time with her friends and family. She is a runner, triathlete, and avid reader.

  • Amelia Smerz

    Amelia Smerz, from Chicago, Illinois, began playing cello at the age of five. She holds a bachelors from DePauw University, where she studied with Eric Edberg, and a masters degree from McGill University, where she studied with Elizabeth Dolin. She has played concerts and recitals throughout the US, Canada, Europe, China and Japan. She was a winner of DePauw’s Concerto Competition for all four years of her undergraduate career and also won the Brevard Music Festival’s Jan and Beattie Wood Concerto Competition. In the course of her education, Amelia fell in love with the art of teaching and published a seventy-five page thesis on non-traditional pedagogical approaches as her culminating project in DePauw’s honor scholar program. Today, she remains dedicated to developing a private studio and evolving her own approach to teaching students. From 2022-2024, Amelia served as a rotating Principal Cellist in The Orchestra Now at Bard College, serving as principal for three of the orchestra’s Carnegie Hall cycles and for the recording of their most recent CD Exodus: Jewish Composers in Exile. In 2024, Amelia became a founding member of the Trillium String Quartet, which began a two year fellowship at Montclair University’s Cali School of Music in September of this year.