FIU Music Festival: Amernet Performs Bach & Mendelssohn

Bach and Mendelssohn bring together the Amernet String Quartet, Wertheim alumni and current FIU students for the opening concert of the 2026 FIU Music Festival. Presented Thursday, October 15, the performance also marks the 30th anniversary of the Herbert and Nicole Wertheim Performing Arts Center and the Wertheim School of Music & Performing Arts, connecting several generations of the school’s musical community on one stage.

The Amernet String Quartet, FIU’s Artist-in-Residence ensemble, anchors a program that opens with Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 3, a work built around intricate exchanges among its string players. Mendelssohn’s Octet follows, bringing the quartet together with additional musicians for one of the composer’s best-known chamber works, written when he was 16.

By pairing the resident quartet with alumni and current students, the festival opener highlights the relationships among performance, mentorship and education that have developed at The Wertheim over three decades.