Clara Abel joins the award-winning ensemble, following the departure of Joshua McClendon
The Isidore Quartet has announced the appointment of Clara Abel as its new cellist. Abel replaces Joshua McClendon, the founding cellist who left the ensemble in September 2026 to pursue a new career path.
Abel joins existing members violinists Adrian Steele and Phoenix Avalon, and violist Devin Moore. Announcing Abel’s appointment on social media, the members described Abel as ’an an extraordinary cellist, a deeply sensitive chamber musician, and a wonderfully curious artist.’
Abel is a graduate of The Juilliard School, where she specialised in chamber music and historical performance. She received the Kovner Fellowship and studied with Joel Krosnick and Phoebe Carrai, as well as the Brentano and Guarneri Quartets and three generations of Juilliard Quartet members.
She lived in Paris from 2025-26 as a Beebe Fellowship recipient. She has performed with early music ensembles such as Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Twelfth Night, Pygmalion Ensemble, The English Concert, Jupiter Ensemble, Les Arts Florissants and Teatro Nuovo.
Her ensemble Quartet Amizia was the fellowship quartet at the Valley of the Moon Music Festival in 2025 and 2026 and was named winner of the ‘Best New Discovery’ Award in 2025 by San Francisco Classical Voice.
The Isidore Quartet was established in 2019 at The Juilliard School. It won first prize at the Banff International String Quartet Competition in 2021 and received an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2023.
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