Quarteto Nuevo merges western classical, eastern European folk, Latin and jazz with an organic feel that packs a wallop! Their diverse programs can be tailored to fit anywhere, from an intimate chamber music venue to a large outdoor festival. The ensemble’s razor-sharp precision is enhanced by jazzy interludes, lightly rumbling percussion motifs and mesmerizing rhythms. They effectively meld the music of ancient worlds and faraway places with a contemporary groove that enchants audiences of all ages.

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Winners of the Beverly Hills National Auditions, and twice recipients of South Arts’ Jazz Roads Touring Grants, Quarteto Nuevo’s master musicians create emotionally charged soundscapes with instruments and sensibilities that represent very different world cultures. Their unique instrumentation – soprano saxophone/alto flute (Damon Zick), cello (Jacob Szekely), guitar (Kenton Youngstrom) and hand percussion (Felipe Fraga) – richly colors their wide-ranging repertoire, from Heitor Villa-Lobos' "Bachianas Brasileiras" and Chick Corea’s “Children's Song No. 6" to Traditional Macedonian “Gadjarsko” and original works “Hector, Desmond and Titus,” “Rain Song” and “Dizer O Que.”

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This past season Quarteto Nuevo was the recipient of a Jazz Road Creative Residency grant from South Arts that supported the creation of their new Jazz Road Suite. The resulting ten-movement suite explores the connection of jazz to geographical and cultural locations. The ensemble premiered the new works in each state they toured during the 2023-2024 season and the complete suite was recorded live in concert in March 2024 at ASU's Kerr Center in Scottsdale, AZ. Live concert videos were released monthly on YouTube, and the full concert recording was released in April 2025.

Damon Zick is a saxophonist, woodwind performer, composer and educator residing in Burbank, California. He was born and raised in Seattle before heading to the East Coast in 1993 to study saxophone, clarinet, composition and jazz at the prestigious Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. After two years in Miami Beach where he performed and recorded with the New World Symphony, Mr. Zick relocated to Los Angeles to complete a Master’s degree in jazz Winds from the California Institute of the Arts where he studied with Charlie Haden. Since then, he has been straddling the worlds of jazz and classical music as an active freelance musician in Los Angeles. Damon’s jazz quintet “Damon Zick and Friends” has toured the U.S. extensively and released two CDs of original compositions, “We Are Large” with Evander Music and “The Outing”. He regularly performs with world/jazz group Quarteto Nuevo, the Westland Trio, the Industrial Jazz Group, and John Tesh. In addition, he has shared the stage with jazz artists such as Bob Mintzer, Vinny Golia, Joe Henderson, Joe LaBarbera, Jack Sheldon, Adam Benjamin, Larry Koonse, and Nate Wood among others.

As a founding member of the Los Angeles Jazz Collective, Damon has worked hard to build a stronger jazz community in Los Angeles. He has been a featured artist at the Reno Jazz Festival, Bakersfield Jazz Festival and UW Eau Claire Jazz Festival. As a classical musician Damon has performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Opera, Santa Barbara Symphony, the Ojai Festival Chamber Ensemble, and the Encore Saxophone Quartet among others. He was a featured performer on Los Angeles Opera’s Grammy winning recording of Kurt Weill: Rise and Fall Of The City Of Mahagonny. Recent solo appearances include “Bohemian Rhapsody” with MUSE/IQUE with Damon playing the part of Freddy Mercury on alto sax. This past year Damon was hired by the U.S. State Department to help adjudicate ensembles for placement into the American Music Abroad program. He is on the faculty at Cal State Fullerton and has performed clinics and master classes at colleges and universities across the U.S.

Kenton Youngstrom’s eclectic performing career has taken him around the world, including appearances as a soloist with orchestras such as the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Los Angeles Opera, Long Beach Opera, New Haven Symphony, Jacksonville Symphony, and under the baton of conductors John Williams, Kent Nagano, Valery Gergiev and Esa-Pekka Salonen. He has toured internationally with Quarteto Nuevo and the Falla Guitar Trio, performing in Europe, the Far East, throughout the US, Canada, and Mexico, and a special concert sponsored by Radio France in Paris. Mr. Youngstrom has performed concerts and recitals with numerous jazz notables such as Dave Brubeck, Hubert Laws, Taylor Eigsti, Scott Colley, Larry Koonse, Putter Smith and Paul Kribeck. He led an international jazz big band at the Cannes Film Festival in France, sang and performed on a prize-winning float with his own Mexican conjunto in the Tournament of Roses Parade, and played with numerous rock bands including the Margo Rey group at Nokia Theater in California and Mahaffey Theater in Florida.

Producing credits include the Falla Guitar Trio’s Concord Records release, “Virtuoso Music for Three Guitars,” which won a Record of the Year Award from Stereo Review magazine. Recent compositions include “Dizer O Que,” “Carnaval,” “Aquilegia” and “Line Drive,” for Quarteto Nuevo’s latest CDs, the score of “Behind the Mask of Zorro” (History Channel), “Kengyadu – Three Movements for Guitar Trio and Orchestra” (co-written with Gyan Riley and Dusan Bogdanovic), and “Mary Pickford – A Life on Film” (Milestone Films). Recent arrangements include Manuel de Falla’s “Noches en los Jardines de España” for the Falla Guitar Trio and orchestra, several pieces including Chick Corea’s “Children’s Song No. 6” for Quarteto Nuevo, J.S.Bach’s “Musical Offering” for the Red Quartet, jazz selections for the Pasadena Jazz Orchestra, and the movie “7 year ZigZag” (Next Step Studios). His most recent solo release, “Voices of the Collection, Vols. 1&2,” featuring 55 classical guitar pieces performed on 55 world-class instruments is widely available on all streaming platforms and his own artist channel on YouTube. In addition to giving workshops and master classes throughout the U.S. and Mexico, Mr. Youngstrom has taught at the University of Southern California, Cypress College, Los Angeles Mission College, East Los Angeles College, the University of Redlands, Pepperdine University, Pasadena City College and joined the faculty at the Colburn Community School of Performing Arts in 1979.

Born in Brooklyn New York in 1979, Jacob Szekely grew up in a musical family where his talent was recognized early on. He was accepted to study classical cello performance at the prestigious Interlochen Arts Academy for high school before attending The Cleveland Institute of Music for his Bachelor’s Degree and The University of Southern California for graduate studies. Berklee cello professor and multiple Grammy winner Eugene Friesen has declared Jacob's playing to be to be “The first time a cellist has made the case as a leader in modern jazz!” In 2013 Jacob founded the Jacob Szekely Trio and released their debut EP which was hailed by critics from the Strad, Strings Magazine, International musician and artists from Yo-Yo Ma, and Chick Corea to Rush Bassist Geddy Lee as a "quantum leap forward" in pushing the boundaries of the instrument.

Mr. Szekely is also in great demand as a sideman and session player in Los Angeles, having appeared in hundreds of commercials, television shows and movie scores. Jacob has been a featured performer or solo cellist with such popular artists as Mary J. Blige, Jay Z, Ellie Goulding, Avril Lavigne and Rush and on such television shows as Battlestar Galactica, The Walking Dead, and The Sarah Connor Chronicles to name a few. In addition to his busy schedule as a performer, Mr. Szekely is also active as a composer and arranger and has collaborated with a wide range of artists and ensembles from string quartets and world music groups to commissions for chamber orchestra and children's choir. In 2007, Jacob expanded his role as musical ambassador through the co-founding and artistic directorship of String Project Los Angeles, a music school and resource for the alternative string playing community throughout the world located in Venice, California named by Strings Magazine as "One of the top 10 reasons to study music in Los Angeles.” In addition to String Project Los Angeles, Jacob has also conducted residencies and master classes across the United States at UCLA, Cal Arts, The Berklee College of Music, Oklahoma State University, Ithaca College and The American String Teachers Association’s national conference to among others.

Los Angeles-based percussionist and drummer Felipe Fraga began playing percussion at age 9. Originally from Curitiba in the southern Brazilian state of Paraná, Felipe studied at the Fine Arts and Music School of Paraná (EMBAP), where he performed with local orchestras, big bands and marching bands, the MPB Orchestra of Curitiba and with artists such as Arthur Moreira Lima, Altamiro Carrilho, Joel Nascimento, José Canuto and Roberto Gnatalli. Upon arriving to Chicago, Illinois in 2001, he has performed and/or recorded with Robert Irving III, Wallace Roney, Victor Goines, Yolanda Adams, Janelle Monáe, Stanley Clarke, Aloe Blacc, David Correy and opened for renowned acts including Vinicius Cantuária, Daniela Mercury and Bajofondo. After relocating to Los Angeles, Felipe also studied at Cornel School of Contemporary Music. Felipe was a featured percussionist for Robert Irving III’s “Sketches of Brazil” project that debuted at Millennium Park in Chicago. He has lent his musical talents to brand advertising for McDonald’s and Nestlé, event properties that include the World Music Festival Chicago and Oprah!, Disney's Viva Navidad! and the movie soundtrack to 'Rio 2'. Felipe founded and directed Unidos do Quilombo Brazilian percussion ensemble in residence at the Quilombo Cultural Center of Chicago. Felipe has taught Brazilian percussion at the Chicago Public Schools, the Music Institute of Chicago, Capital University’s Conservatory of Music in Ohio and DePaul University’s School of Music.