Eclipse quartet is a Los Angeles based string quartet dedicated to the music of our time. An exciting new ensemble, the group is made up of four women, all passionate chamber musicians, who have strong backgrounds in new music, recording and national and international performance. The members of Eclipse come together to explore the music of late twentieth and present day composers. Their current repertoire includes composers such as Terri Riley, Elliot Sharp, John Zorn, Lois Vierck, Arvo Part, Julia Wolfe and is ever expanding! The quartet also collaborates with filmmakers, visual artists and lighting designers, creating new connections between what we hear and see.

Eclipse will be releasing a recording of the new string quartet by Zeena Parkins on John Zorn's label, Tsadik, later this year.

Sara Parkins, violinist, is a grammy award winner for the Best Chamber Music Performance of the complete recordings of the haydn string quartets, with the Angeles Quartet. Sara is also a prize winner of the Fiscoff National Chamber Music Competition with the Stonybrook Piano Trio. On the forefront of contemporary music, she has collaborated with prominent new music composers and performers such as Anthony Braxton, mark Dresser, and Gerry Hemmingway, among others. In addition, Sara performs with the Orchestra of St.Lukes in New York City and is also active as a studio musician in Los Angeles. An international performer, Ms. Parkins has played at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival,Banff Centre, and strings in the mountains in Colorado, as well as the Taktlos festival in Zurich,and Festival International de Cadeques in Spain. Along with her recordings on Philips Classics, Sara is featured in recordings on the VictoAvon and Tzadik labels. Sara attended the Cutis Institute of Music and received her Masters degree from Suny Stonybrook in New York.

Sarah Thornblade is currently the associate principal second violin of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. This past season, she performed with X-tet, the Armadillo String quartet and the Denali String Quartet in addition to her work as a studio musician in Los Angeles. Sarah has been a member of the Auros Group for New Music (Boston) and the Boston Modern Orchestra project. A former founding member of the Arianna String Quartet, quartet in residence at Eastern Michigan University, she won first prize at the Fishoff, Coleman and Carmel chamber music competitions. Sarah has performed throughout the country and abroad in addition to performances in Tanglewood, Spoleto, Colorado Music Festival, Oregon Bach Festival, Norfolk Festival, Banff and the Portland Chamber Music Festival. She has collaborated with artists such as Glibert Kalish, Andres Cardenes, Andres Diaz, Randall Hodgkinson and Charles Neidich. Sarah studied with Miriam Fried and Shmuel Ashkenasi.

Joanna Hood is currently Artist-in-Residence at University of Victoria in British Columbia where she teaches both viola and chamber music. She has been a founding member of the Lafayette String Quartet since 1986, and performs with them throughout Canada, the U.S. and abroad. With the Lafayette she has won top prizes at the City of Portsmouth (now city of London) string quartet competition, a well as the Fishoff, and Chicago Discovery competition. She is also a member of the Loma Mar String Quartet and performs with The Orchestra of St. Luke's in New York City. She has recordings on the EMI, Dorian, CBC, and Adlar lables, and has been heard in live broadcasts on NPR, CBC and other international radio stations. She has appeared as principal viola of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and has recorded the music of artists such as Sir Paul McCartney and Claudia Acuna. Joanna is a graduate of the San Francisco Conservatory and Indiana University.

Cellist Maggie Parkins enjoys a busy musical life dividing her time between the concert stage and teaching. She has performed all over the world as an orchestral and chamber musician in such festivals as Spoleto, Banff, Sante Fe, Heidelberg, Taos, Cadaques Spain, and Tanglewood. She has toured and recorded with accordianist Guy Klusevsek, composer improviser Zeena Parkins and guitarist composer Elliot Sharp. In Los Angeles she has performed with chamber ensembles such as the Eclipse Quartet, a new music string quartet, the Mojave Trio, a piano trio doing standard and contemporary repertoire, and Quatracelli!, a cello quartet. She has also performed with Japan America Orchestra, LA Mozart Orchestra, and Riverside Symphony as well as in the Hollywood recording studios for film and television scores. Maggie is currently professor of cello at University of California at Irvine and has also taught at Concordia University.