The Philadelphia String Quartet was 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 ...

started in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. The string quartet was started in 1959-60 by four members of the

Philadelphia Orchestra The Philadelphia Orchestra is an American symphony orchestra, based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. One of the " Big Five" American orchestras, the orchestra is based at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, where it performs its subscription ...

, who later broke off from the orchestra and accepted residency in

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

. Alan Iglitzin, the founding violist of the quartet, later went on to found the

Olympic Music Festival The Olympic Music Festival based in Port Townsend, Washington, is a classical music event founded by Alan Iglitzin. For 32 seasons, concerts were held in a barn nestled on 55 acres of farmland in Quilcene, Washington. The 2016 season was prese ...

near Quilcene, Washington.

History

The original founding members of the Philadelphia String Quartet were Alan Iglitzin (

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 ...

), Irwin Eisenberg (second

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 ...

), Charles Brennand (

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 ...

), and Veda Reynolds (first violin). The original quartet made its

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 ...

debut at

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhatta ...

during the 1963-64 season. The move angered

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...

management Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...

, which sued to prevent the quartet's departure, claiming a violation of contract. In 1961, the group was appointed quartet in residence at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

. The players eventually won the right to leave the orchestra. The foursome resigned from the orchestra to become quartet-in-residence at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

in 1966. In 1966, Alan Iglitzin and other members of the Philadelphia String Quartet moved to Seattle to become the University of Washington's Quartet-in-Residence, a position it held until 1982. During its 30-year tenure, the Quartet made numerous European and international tours and recorded much of the chamber music repertoire. From 1976-77, the Quartet played their

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 ...

cycle: this included Quartet No. 3 in D Major, Quartet No. 9 in C Major, Quartet No. 16 in F Major, and the

Große Fuge The ''Grosse Fuge'' (German spelling: ''Große'' ''Fuge'', also known in English as the ''Great Fugue'' or ''Grand Fugue''), Op. 133, is a single-movement composition for string quartet by Ludwig van Beethoven. An immense double fugue, it was ...

. In 1984, Mr. Iglitzin founded the

on Washington's

Olympic Peninsula The Olympic Peninsula is a large arm of land in western Washington that lies across Puget Sound from Seattle, and contains Olympic National Park. It is bounded on the west by the Pacific Ocean, the north by the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and the ...

, originally intending it to be a summer home for the Philadelphia String Quartet. In the years since, the music festival has become popular with Northwest audiences and was voted "Best Classical Music Festival" by readers of The Seattle Weekly. The name of the quartet has been revived by Violist Radhames Santos. A new web site has been made
Philadelphia String Quartet

References

Olympic Musical Festival WebsiteSpokane Daily Chronicle article
{{Authority control American string quartets Musical groups established in 1960 1960 establishments in Pennsylvania