Temescal String Quartet is a San Francisco Bay Area ensemble, established in 2004 by musicians of the SF Opera and Ballet Orchestras. They share a great love of music, deep friendship, and great joy in playing music together.
Temescal String Quartet plays great masterworks of the String Quartet repertoire, including music by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Ravel and more. They also enjoy playing contemporary repertoire, from Stravinsky (1918) to O’Leary (2016).
Barbara Riccardi is a native of New York, where her “formal” training began at age 3. She graduated magna cum laude from Vassar College and studied violin with Boris Koutzen, who truly ignited her passion for music. She also studied chamber music with Casals disciple Luis Garcia-Renart, who kindled her lifelong pursuit that began with a mentorship to the Guarneri String Quartet and its first violinist Arnold Steinhardt, who became her sole teacher for many years, culminating with the formation of the Temescal Quartet. Along with her long-standing friend Jonna Hervig from the Guarneri masterclasses, the Temescal was founded in 2005. Barbara joined the San Francisco Symphony under Seiji Ozawa and subsequently the San Francisco Opera Orchestra, where the vocal masters continue to inspire.
Dana Myers graduated from the Juilliard School with BA and MA degrees in Violin Performance, after studying violin with Dorothy DeLay and chamber music with Felix Galimir and Robert Mann. Upon graduation, she flew directly to the Netherlands to join Het Residentie Orkest (The Hague Philharmonic). She then returned to the US and joined the Saint Louis Symphony, where she appeared as soloist several times with the orchestra. After 42 years in the SLSO, she and her trombonist husband Tim Myers fulfilled a dream and moved to San Francisco, where she was invited to join the Temescal Quartet. When she is not collaborating musically, she can be found in her garden or behind knitting needles next to her large Siberian cat, Mischa.
Violist Linda Green, originally from Toledo, Ohio, makes her home in Richmond, California, where she freelances in many orchestras and plays in the Temescal String Quartet. Linda played with the Carol Trio and was the assistant principal violist of the Orquestra Nacional do Porto, Portugal. She has been a participant in the Gateways Music Festival, including when the group made its 2022 Carnegie Hall debut. As a teacher, she taught 2000+ instrumentalists in the Oakland Public Schools and co-founded both the Home of United String Ensembles (HOUSE) and the Oakland Symphony–sponsored MUSE VIVO Orchestra.
Cellist Nancy Bien received her BA in music from CSU Hayward and her MA in performance from the University of Iowa, where she studied chamber music with members of the Stradivari String Quartet. She is the cellist of the Temescal String Quartet, Assistant Principal Cellist of the Marin Symphony, a nine-year veteran of Resonance Jazz Ensemble, and juggles an active freelance schedule, playing in varied ensembles throughout the greater SF Bay Area.