Fine Arts Quartet

The Fine Arts Quartet is a chamber music ensemble founded in Chicago, United States in 1946 by Leonard Sorkin and George Sopkin. The Quartet has recorded over 200 works and has toured internationally for 77 years, making it one of the longest enduring major string quartets.
In its history, the Quartet has had two leaders: Leonard Sorkin, from 1946 to 1981, and Ralph Evans, from 1982 to the present. Its current members are violinists Ralph Evans and Efim Boico (who have been playing together in the Quartet since 1983), violist Gil Sharon, and cellist Niklas Schmidt.

History

Although the Fine Arts Quartet was founded in 1946, the group's members had begun working together as early as 1939 while playing in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. The Quartet's first performance took place in 1940 with Leonard Sorkin, Ben Senescu, Sheppard Lehnhoff, and George Sopkin. Military service in World War II intervened, however, and it was not until 1946, now with the new second violinist Joseph Stepansky, that the Quartet began to rehearse and perform regularly.

The Quartet members have helped nurture many young international ensembles. Their first teaching residency, 1951–1954, at Northwestern University, was followed by a 55 year residency, 1963-2018 (concluded in January 2018),
as Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. In 1982, Leonard Sorkin founded the Chamber Music Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and became its first director and served in that capacity until his death in 1985.

The Quartet members have also been guest professors at the national music conservatories of Paris and Lyon, the Royal Academy and Royal College of Music in London, the summer music schools of Yale University and Indiana University, and at music festivals world-wide. They have appeared as jury members of major competitions such as Evian, Shostakovich, and Bordeaux. Documentaries on the Fine Arts Quartet have appeared on both French and American public television.

Early recordings and performance

The Quartet performed on the ABC Radio Network's Sunday morning broadcasts from 1946 until 1954. In the mid-fifties, there was an appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, performances on the Today Show, and starting in 1958, the Quartet began to tour Europe annually. In the late sixties, the United States Department of State sponsored the Quartet's tours to Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Australia and New Zealand, and by the late seventies, the Quartet had performed in 270 cities in 28 countries. The Quartet continued to broadcast for radio in America (especially for WFMT-Chicago), in Europe (e.g. the BBC
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