The Emerson String Quartet, also known as the Emerson Quartet, is an American

string quartet The term string quartet can refer to either a type of musical composition or a group of four people who play them. Many composers from the mid-18th century onwards wrote string quartets. The associated musical ensemble consists of two violinists ...

that was initially formed as a student group at the

Juilliard School The Juilliard School ( ) is a private performing arts conservatory in New York City. Established in 1905, the school trains about 850 undergraduate and graduate students in dance, drama, and music. It is widely regarded as one of the most el ...

in 1976. It was named for American poet and philosopher

Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champ ...

and began touring professionally in 1976. The ensemble taught in residence at

The Hartt School The Hartt School is the comprehensive performing arts conservatory of the University of Hartford located in West Hartford, Connecticut, United States, that offers degree programs in music, dance, and theatre. Founded in 1920 by Julius Hartt and ...

in the 1980s and is currently (2022) the quartet in residence at

Stony Brook University Stony Brook University (SBU), officially the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is a public research university in Stony Brook, New York. Along with the University at Buffalo, it is one of the State University of New York system's ...

. Both of the founding violinists studied with Oscar Shumsky at Juilliard, and the two alternated as first and second violinists for the group. The Emerson Quartet was one of the first such ensembles with the two violinists alternating chairs. The Emerson Quartet was inducted into the Classical Music Hall of Fame in 2010. , they have released more than thirty albums and won nine

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...

s, as well as the prestigious

Avery Fisher Prize The Avery Fisher Prize is an award given to American musicians for outstanding achievement in classical music. Founded by philanthropist Avery Fisher in 1974, it is regarded as one of the most significant awards for American instrumentalists. ...

. In August 2021 the quartet announced its plan to disband at the end of the 2022–2023 season in order to focus on teaching and solo work.

Members

The current members of the group are: Eugene Drucker and Philip Setzer,

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

;

Lawrence Dutton Lawrence Dutton (born 9 May 1954) is an American violist, and a member of the Emerson String Quartet. He earned a bachelor's and master's degree from the Juilliard School where he studied with Lillian Fuchs. He is on the faculty of the State U ...

viola The viola ( , also , ) is a string instrument that is bow (music), bowed, plucked, or played with varying techniques. Slightly larger than a violin, it has a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of ...

(since 1977); and Paul Watkins,

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...

(since 2013). Previous members were: Guillermo Figueroa, Jr., viola (1976–1977); Eric Wilson, cello (1976–1979); and

David Finckel David Finckel (born December 6, 1951) is an American cellist and influential figure in the classical music world. The cellist for the Emerson String Quartet from 1979 to 2013, Finckel is currently the co-artistic director of the Chamber Music S ...

, cello (1979–2013).

History

In the early 1980s,

Deutsche Grammophon Deutsche Grammophon (; DGG) is a German classical music record label that was the precursor of the corporation PolyGram. Headquartered in Berlin Friedrichshain, it is now part of Universal Music Group (UMG) since its merger with the UMG family of ...

chose the Emerson Quartet to begin a series of recordings of the string quartet literature to be released on the new CD digital format. Cellist David Finckel called this a "huge break" for the ensemble, allowing it to develop a worldwide audience for its performances.

Instruments

In addition to using their Stradivarius instruments, the Emerson quartet own instruments by

Samuel Zygmuntowicz Samuel Zygmuntowicz (born 1956) is a contemporary luthier and is widely regarded as one of the finest violin makers of his generation. He began his instrument making training at age 13, and studied making and restoration under Peter Prier, Carl B ...

which they often favour in larger halls as they believe they have better projection. Violinist Eugene Drucker even says of his modern violin "In a large space like Carnegie Hall, the Zygmuntowicz is superior to my Strad. It has more power and punch."

Awards and recognition

Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance The Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance was awarded from 1959 to 2011. The award was discontinued in 2012 in a major overhaul of Grammy categories; since 2012, recordings in this category have fallen under the Best Small Ensemble Perfor ...

: * 1989 '' Bartók: 6 String Quartets'' * 1993 ''

Ives Ives is both a surname and a given name. Notable people with the name include: Surname: * Alice Emma Ives (1876–1930), American dramatist, journalist * Burl Ives (1909–1995), American singer, author and actor * Charles Ives (1874–1954), Ame ...

: String Quartets Nos. 1, 2;

Barber A barber is a person whose occupation is mainly to cut, dress, groom, style and shave men's and boys' hair or beards. A barber's place of work is known as a "barbershop" or a "barber's". Barbershops are also places of social interaction and publi ...

: String Quartet Op.11 (American Originals)'' *

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classical ...

: The String Quartets'' *

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

Shostakovich Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, , group=n (9 August 1975) was a Soviet-era Russian composer and pianist who became internationally known after the premiere of his First Symphony in 1926 and was regarded throughout his life as a major compo ...

: The String Quartets'' *

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

Mendelssohn Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (3 February 18094 November 1847), born and widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic music, Romantic period. Mendelssohn's compositi ...

: The Complete String Quartets'' *

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

''Intimate Voices '' *

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

''Intimate Letters ''

Grammy Award for Best Classical Album The Grammy Award for Best Classical Album was awarded from 1962 to 2011. The award had several minor name changes: *From 1962 to 1963, 1965 to 1972 and 1974 to 1976 the award was known as Album of the Year – Classical *In 1964 and 1977 it wa ...

: * 1989 ''Bartók'': 6 String Quartets'' *

''Shostakovich'': The String Quartets''

Gramophone Classical Music Awards The Gramophone Classical Music Awards, launched in 1977, are one of the most significant honours bestowed on recordings in the classical record industry. They are often viewed as equivalent to or surpassing the American Grammy award, and refer ...

: *Chamber (Record of the Year) 1989 - ''Bartók'': String Quartets Nos. 1–6 *Chamber 2000 – ''Shostakovich'', Complete String Quartets (Nos 1–15 In 2002 the Quartet were the Music Directors of the

Ojai Music Festival The Ojai Music Festival is an annual classical music festival in the United States. Held in Ojai, California (75 miles northwest of Los Angeles), for four days every June, the festival presents music, symposia, and educational programs emphasizi ...

. They also played for the Oscar nominated short film, The

Little Match Girl "The Little Match Girl" ( da, Den Lille Pige med Svovlstikkerne, meaning "The little girl with the sulphur-sticks", i.e. matches) is a literary fairy tale by Danish poet and author Hans Christian Andersen. The story, about a dying child's ...

. They have also won the

, and in 2010, were inducted into the Classical Music Hall of Fame, with a ceremony held in 2011. In January 2015, the Quartet received the Richard J. Bogomolny National Service Award, the highest award in the classical

chamber music Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small numb ...

world.

Recordings

*''Volume I - Dvorák: Quartet No. 12 in F, Op. 96 "American;" Smetana: Quartet No. 1 in E "From My Life."'' (1990) Book of the Month Records *''Volume II - Brahms: Quartet No. 1 in c, Op. 51; Schumann: Quartet in A, Op. 41, No. 3'' (1990) Book of the Month Records *''Volume III - Borodin: Quartet No. 2 in D; Tchaikovsky: Quartet No. 1 in D, Op.11'' (1990) Book of the Month Records *''Volume IV - Debussy: Quartet in g, Op. 10; Ravel: Quartet in F Major.'' (1990) Book of the Month Records *''Piston: Concerto for String Quartet, Winds and Percussion'' (1990) Composers Recording Inc *''Cowell: Quartet Euphometric; Harris: Three Variations on a Theme (Quartet No. 2)'' (1990)

New World The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. 3 ...

*''Imbrie: Quartet No. 4; Schuller: Quartet No. 2'' (1990) New World *''Beethoven: Quartet in F, Op. 135; Schubert: Quartet in G, D. 887'' (1990)

*''Dvorák: Quartet No. 12 in F, Op. 96 "American"; Smetana: Quartet No. 1 in E, "From My Life."'' (1990) Deutsche Grammophon *''Debussy: Quartet in g, Op. 10; Ravel: Quartet in F'' (1990) Deutsche Grammophon *''Tchaikovsky: Quartet No. 1 in D, Op. 11; Borodin: Quartet No. 2 in D'' (1990) Deutsche Grammophon *''Mozart: Quartet in B-flat, K. 458 "Hunt"; Quartet in C, K. 465 "Dissonance"; Haydn: Quartet in C, Op. 76, No. 3 "Emperor'' (1990) Deutsche Grammophon *''Brahms: Quartet No. 1 in c, Op. 51; Schumann: Quartet in A, Op. 41, No. 3'' (1990) Deutsche Grammophon *''Beethoven: Quartet in f, Op. 95; Schubert: Quartet No. 14 in d, D. 810 "Death and the Maiden"'' (1990) Deutsche Grammophon *''Bartók: Complete String Quartets'' (1990) Deutsche Grammophon *''Mozart: The "Haydn" Quartets (complete)'' (1992) Deutsche Grammophon *''Mozart: The Flute Quartets'' with Carol Wincenc (1992) Deutsche Grammophon *''Prokofiev: String Quartets Nos. 1 & 2/Sonata for 2 Violins'' (1992) Deutsche Grammophon *''Schubert: String Quintet in C, D. 956'' with

Mstislav Rostropovich Mstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich, (27 March 192727 April 2007) was a Russian cellist and conductor. He is considered by many to be the greatest cellist of the 20th century. In addition to his interpretations and technique, he was wel ...

(1992) Deutsche Grammophon *''American Originals: String Quartets of Ives and Barber'' (1993) Deutsche Grammophon *''American Contemporaries: Harbison, Wernick, and Schuller'' (1994) Deutsche Grammophon *''Dvorák: Quartet in E-flat, Op. 87; Quintet in A, Op. 81'' with

Menahem Pressler Menahem Pressler ( he, מנחם פרסלר; born 16 December 1923) is a German-born Israeli-American pianist. Pressler is Jewish. Following Kristallnacht, he and his immediate family fled Nazi Germany in 1939,

(1994) Deutsche Grammophon *''Mozart: String Quartet in G, K. 387; String Quartet in d, K. 421'' (1995) Deutsche Grammophon *''Webern: Works for String Quartet/String Trio Op. 20'' (1995) Deutsche Grammophon *''Schumann Piano Quintet Op. 44/ Piano Quartet Op. 47'' with Menahem Pressler (1996) Deutsche Grammophon *''Beethoven: The String Quartets (Complete)'' (1997) Deutsche Grammophon *''Beethoven: Key to the Quartets'' (1997) Deutsche Grammophon *''Meyer: String Quintet/Rorem: String Quartet No. 4'' with Edgar Meyer (1998) Deutsche Grammophon *''Music of Curt Cacioppo: "Monsterslayer")'' (1998)

Capstone Records Capstone Records is an American classical music record label focusing particularly on contemporary classical music. It was established by Richard Brooks in 1986 and was based in Brooklyn, New York. The label has hundreds of releases featuring a w ...

*''Schubert: String Quintet; Late Quartets'' (1999) Deutsche Grammophon *''Mozart/Brahms: Clarinet Quintets'' with David Shifrin (1999) Deutsche Grammophon *''Shostakovich: The String Quartets (complete)'' (2000) Deutsche Grammophon *''The Haydn Project'' (2001) Deutsche Grammophon *''The Emerson Encores'' (2002) Deutsche Grammophon *''Bach: The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080'' (2003) Deutsche Grammophon *''Haydn: The Seven Last Words of our Savior on the Cross, Op. 51'' (2004) Deutsche Grammophon *''Mendelssohn: The Complete String Quartets'' (2005) Deutsche Grammophon *''Intimate Voices'' (2006) Deutsche Grammophon *''The Little Match Girl'' (2007)

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

*''Brahms: String Quartets'' (2007) Deutsche Grammophon *''Bach Fugues'' (2008) Deutsche Grammophon *''Intimate Letters'' (2009) Deutsche Grammophon *''Old World-New World'' (Dvorak) with Paul Neubauer (2010) Deutsche Grammophon *''Mozart: The Prussian Quartets'' (2011)

Sony Classical Sony Classical is an American record label founded in 1924 as Columbia Masterworks Records, a subsidiary of Columbia Records. In 1980, the Columbia Masterworks label was renamed as CBS Masterworks Records. The CBS Records Group was acquired by S ...

*Journeys: Tchaikovsky, Schönberg (2013) Sony Classical *Berg: Lyric Suite; Wellesz: Sonnets By Elizabeth Barrett Browning (2015)

Decca Decca may refer to: Music * Decca Records or Decca Music Group, a record label * Decca Gold, a classical music record label owned by Universal Music Group * Decca Broadway, a musical theater record label * Decca Studios, a recording facility in W ...

*''Emerson String Quartet: The Complete DG Recordings'' (2016)

(52 CDs) *Chaconnes And Fantasias - Music Of Britten And Purcell (2017) Decca *Schumann - String Quartets (2020) PENTATONE

References

External links

*Emerson String Quarte
official websiteArtists' page on IMGArtistsBACH & friends Documentary
{{DEFAULTSORT:Emerson String Quartet Musical groups established in 1976 American string quartets Grammy Award winners University of Hartford Hartt School 1976 establishments in New York City Deutsche Grammophon artists