Share a delightful Sunday afternoon with the Toomai String Quintet at The Westport Library! Music lovers of all ages will enjoy the Quintet's Latin American repertoire, devoted to playing a variety of musical traditions from around the world.

The Toomai String Quintet is an ensemble whose music spans its own string arrangements and commissioned new works. The award-winning group has been engaging audiences across the US for over a decade, performing concerts in collaboration with presenters such as Carnegie Hall, 92 Y, and The Juilliard School, among others.

Central to Toomai's mission is the expansion of the Latin American repertoire for string ensemble. Toomai has arranged or commissioned over 25 works by Latin American composers. The ensemble also facilitates educational workshops that teach young people creative approaches to music through the lens of Cuban and other Latin American traditions. In 2018, Toomai released its debut album, Cuerdas Cubanas. In 2024, the group released its second album, Passos Brasileiros, featuring original arrangements of music by legendary Brazilian composers such as Chiquinha Gonzaga, Milton Nascimento, Hermeto Pascoal, Heitor Villa-Lobos, and more.

Formed in 2007 at The Juilliard School, the quintet is named after Rudyard Kipling’s short story Toomai of the Elephants, in which a young boy journeys into the jungle to witness the dance of the wild elephants. The Toomai String Quintet aims to foster a similar sense of curiosity and discovery by exploring diverse music and sharing it with its audience. The quintet members are violinists Emilie-Anne Gendron and Alex Fortes, violist George Meyer, cellist Hamilton Berry, and bassist Andrew Roitstein.