Emerson String Quartet

Eugene Drucker, violin
Philip Setzer, violin
Lawrence Dutton, viola
David Finckel, cello

Web Address:
www.emersonquartet.com

“The Emerson has the traditional string-quartet virtues; each player is a strongly characterized individual, but the ensemble is temperamentally as well a sonically in balance.” – The New Yorker

“The Emerson give us playing of exceptional technical accomplishment and an unusually wide expressive range.” - Gramophone

Acclaimed for its insightful and dynamic performances, brilliant artistry and technical mastery, the Emerson String Quartet is one of the world's foremost chamber ensembles. The Quartet has amassed an impressive list of achievements: an exclusive Universal Classics/Deutsche Grammophon recording contract, four Grammy Awards, regular appearances with virtually every chamber music series and festival worldwide, and an international reputation as a quartet that approaches both the classics and contemporary music with equal mastery and enthusiasm. For nearly a quarter of a century, the ensemble has collaborated with numerous artists, including Emanuel Ax, Misha Dichter, Leon Fleisher, the Guarneri String Quartet, Thomas Hampson, Lynn Harrell, Barbara Hendricks, the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio, Menahem Pressler, Mstislav Rostropovich, Oscar Shumsky, David Shifrin and Richard Stoltzman.

In 2000, the members of the Emerson String Quartet celebrated their 20th year as faculty at the University of Hartford's Hartt School of Music, where they have inaugurated a special training program for young quartets. For nearly 25 years, the Emerson has had an annual series at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Committed to teaching the nation's most talented music students, the ensemble will perform or give master classes at a host of universities and conservatories across the country.

The Quartet recently performed the complete cycle of Shostakovich quartets in a critically acclaimed five-concert series presented at New York's Alice Tully Hall, as well as Wigmore Hall and the Barbican Centre in London. The theatrical nature of these extraordinary masterpieces and their powerful effect on audiences led the Emerson to record them live during three summers of performances at the Aspen Music Festival. Meticulous editing eliminated virtually all background noise, and the recording, on the Deutsche Grammophon label, has been praised for the intensity and energy of the performances. The Quartet also collaborated with renowned director Simon McBurney (Street of Crocodiles, The Chairs) in an innovative theatrical piece featuring Shostakovich's 15th Quartet. Blending film, choreography, taped readings and live music by the Emerson Quartet, the multimedia work, entitled "The Noise of Time," captured the essence of this haunted composer and his music. Future performances are planned for London's Barbican Centre, the Moscow Festival, Berliner Festspiele, Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Massachusetts International Festival and the Krannert Center in Champagne-Urbana.