The Chiara String Quartet is known for playing its repertoire from memory. The ensemble was formed in 2000, and after winning a number of grants, it became the Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln in 2005 and the Blodgett Artists-in-Residence at Harvard University from 2008 to 2014 and at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art in the 2015-2016 season. Founding members of the quartet are violinists Rebecca Fischer and Hyeyung Julie Yoon, violist Jonah Sirota, and cellist Gregory Beaver.

In addition to playing without printed parts, as demonstrated on the albums Brahms by Heart and Bartók by Heart, the Chiara String Quartet also performs in a variety of unusual venues, such as bars and nightclubs, following its bywords, "Chamber music in any chamber." The ensemble has taught at the Juilliard School of Music, the Greenwood Music Camp, and the Chamber Music Institute of the University of Nebraska. The Chiara String Quartet has recorded on its own New Voice Singles label, as well as on New Amsterdam and Azica Records. Its recording of Jefferson Friedman's String Quartet No. 3 was nominated for a Grammy Award.

The quartet members decided to dissolve the ensemble at the end of the 2017-2018 season, allowing the musicians to expand their own performing and teaching careers. In the spring of 2018, as part of that last season's tour, the Chiara String Quartet and pianist Paul Barnes would premiere a new piano quintet by Philip Glass. ~ Blair Sanderson & Patsy Morita, Rovi