The Escher String 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 ...

based in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, where they serve as Artists of the

Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (CMS) is an American organization dedicated to the performance and promotion of chamber music in New York City. It is the largest organization of its kind in the country for chamber music. CMS's home is ...

. Their name derives from the Dutch artist

M. C. Escher Maurits Cornelis Escher (; 17 June 1898 – 27 March 1972) was a Dutch graphic artist who made mathematically inspired woodcuts, lithographs, and mezzotints. Despite wide popular interest, Escher was for most of his life neglected in t ...

Biography

The Escher Quartet was founded in 2005 in New York City, where its original members were studying at the

Manhattan School of Music The Manhattan School of Music (MSM) is a private music conservatory in New York City. The school offers bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees in the areas of classical and jazz performance and composition, as well as a bachelor's in mu ...

. The group tours the US as well as internationally and has performed in Europe, Australia, and China.

Escher String Quartet
Retrieved 13 June 2014. Among the venues where the ensemble has performed are the Auditorium du Louvre in Paris,

Kennedy Center The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (formally known as the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, and commonly referred to as the Kennedy Center) is the United States National Cultural Center, located on the Potom ...

in Washington DC, the

Concertgebouw The Royal Concertgebouw ( nl, Koninklijk Concertgebouw, ) is a concert hall in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The Dutch term "concertgebouw" translates into English as "concert building". Its superb acoustics place it among the finest concert halls i ...

in Amsterdam, and

Wigmore Hall Wigmore Hall is a concert hall located at 36 Wigmore Street, London. Originally called Bechstein Hall, it specialises in performances of chamber music, early music, vocal music and song recitals. It is widely regarded as one of the world's leadin ...

in London. The quartet served on the

BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists scheme BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists scheme (also known as the NGA scheme) was launched in 1999 by Adam Gatehouse as part of the BBC's commitment to young musical talent. Each autumn six or seven young artists at the beginning of careers on the n ...

from 2010 until 2012.

BBC Radio 3 BBC Radio 3 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It replaced the BBC Third Programme in 1967 and broadcasts classical music and opera, with jazz, world music, Radio drama, drama, High culture, culture and the arts ...

BBC New Generation Artists
Retrieved 13 June 2014. They were also invited by

Pinchas Zukerman Pinchas Zukerman ( he, פנחס צוקרמן, born 16 July 1948) is an Israeli-American violinist, violist and conductor. Life and career Zukerman was born in Tel Aviv, to Jewish parents and Holocaust survivors Yehuda and Miriam Lieberman Zuk ...

to serve as Quartet in Residence at the Young Artists Programme at Canada's National Arts Centre and were invited by

Itzhak Perlman Itzhak Perlman ( he, יצחק פרלמן; born August 31, 1945) is an Israeli-American violinist widely considered one of the greatest violinists in the world. Perlman has performed worldwide and throughout the United States, in venues that hav ...

to the

Perlman Music Program The Perlman Music Program is a summer program for gifted young musicians. Founded by Toby Perlman, wife of Israeli-American violinist Itzhak Perlman, in 1995, the program is headquartered in Shelter Island, New York Shelter Island is an island ...

on Shelter Island, New York. From 2007 until 2009, the quartet was 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 ...

br>"New Southampton Sunday Music Series Kicks Off With Escher String Quartet"
. Retrieved 13 June 2014. Escher has been mentored by the

Emerson String Quartet The Emerson String Quartet, also known as the Emerson Quartet, is an American string quartet that was initially formed as a student group at the Juilliard School in 1976. It was named for American poet and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson and beg ...

and has collaborated with artists that include Leon Fleischer, David Finckel, Wu Han, Benjamin Grosvenor, jazz vocalist

Kurt Elling Kurt Elling (born November 2, 1967) is an American jazz singer and songwriter. Born in Chicago, Illinois, and raised in Rockford, Illinois, Rockford, Elling became interested in music through his father, who was Kapellmeister at a Lutheran chur ...

, and jazz saxophonist Joshua Redman

Emerson String Quartet
. Retrieved 13 June 2014. In 2013 the Escher Quartet was awarded the Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Career Grant.

Lincoln Center Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 millio ...

Avery Fisher Career Grants 2013
Retrieved 26 June 2014. In 2015 the quartet was awarded the Martin. E. Segal Award by Lincoln Center.

Members

*Adam Barnett-Hart,

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 ...

*Aaron Boyd, violin *Pierre Lapointe,

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 ...

*Brook Speltz,

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 ...

Recordings

The Escher String Quartet is best known for its recordings of

Alexander von Zemlinsky Alexander Zemlinsky or Alexander von Zemlinsky (14 October 1871 – 15 March 1942) was an Austrian composer, conductor, and teacher. Biography Early life Zemlinsky was born in Vienna to a highly diverse family. Zemlinsky's grandfather, Anton S ...

's complete string quartets. In 2015, the quartet began releasing recordings of Mendelssohn's complete string quartets on the BIS label.BI

" BIS Artists: Escher String Quartet". Retrieved 12 October 2015 *

Music@Menlo Music@Menlo is an annual summer chamber music festival and institute in Atherton, California. The festival was founded in 2003 by cellist David Finckel and pianist Wu Han. American Public Media American Public Media (APM) is an American comp ...

: ''Bridging the Ages'', Disc 5. 2008. Music@Menlo Live *Amy Cheney Beach Piano Quintet / Alan Louis Smith Vignettes: ''Covered Wagon Woman''. 2011.

Chamber Music Society ''Chamber Music Society'' is the third studio album by American bassist and singer Esperanza Spalding. It was released on August 17, 2010 by Heads Up International. After Spalding's Grammy win for Best New Artist, the album re-entered the ''Bi ...

Studio Recordings *''Stony Brook Soundings'', Vol. 1, 2011.

Bridge Records Bridge Records is an independent record label that specializes in classical music located in New Rochelle, New York. History A classical guitarist, David Starobin recorded the Boccherini Guitar Quintet in E minor in the 1970s. This was his first ...

Cahill, Greg (October 2010)
"An Impressive Collection of Modern Chamber Works from Stony Brook"
''Strings''. *Alexander Zemlinsky String Quartets, Vol. 1, 2013.

Naxos Naxos (; el, Νάξος, ) is a Greek island and the largest of the Cyclades. It was the centre of archaic Cycladic culture. The island is famous as a source of emery, a rock rich in corundum, which until modern times was one of the best abr ...

*Alexander Zemlinsky String Quartets, Vol. 2, 2014. Naxos *Mendelssohn: String Quartets No. 1 in E Flat Major and No. 4 in E Minor, 2015. BIS *Mendelssohn: String Quartets No. 2 in A Minor and No. 3 in D Major, 2015. BIS *Mendelssohn: String Quartets No. 5 in E Flat Major and No. 6 in F Minor, 2016. BIS *Dvořák: American Quartet; Tchaikovsky: Quartet No. 1; Borodin: Quartet No. 2, 2018. BIS *Samuel Barber: String Quartet in B minor, Op.11; Charles Ives: String Quartet No. 1 (From the Salvation Army) and String Quartet No. 2, 2021.BIS
Samuel Barber: String Quartet in B minor, Op.11; Charles Ives: String Quartet No. 1 (From the Salvation Army) and String Quartet No. 2
Retrieved 9 May 2022. BIS

References

External links

* * {{Portal bar, Classical music Musical groups from New York City Musical groups established in 2005 American string quartets