ARTIST PROFILE

Brentano String Quartet

BIOGRAPHY

Since its inception in 1992, The Brentano String Quartet has been singled out for its technical brilliance, musical insight and stylistic elegance. Within a year's time, the Brentano String Quartet claimed the distinction of being named to three major awards, winning the first Cleveland Quartet Award, the 1995 Naumburg Chamber Music Award and the 10th Annual Martin E. Segal Award. For their first appearance in Great Britain at Wigmore Hall the Brentano was awarded the Royal Philharmonic Society Music Award for the most outstanding debut in 1997. The Quartet became the first quartet-in-residence at Princeton University in 1999, and served as quartet-in-residence at New York University from 1995 - 2003. In 1995 they were chosen by The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center to participate in the inaugural season of Chamber Music Society Two - a program designed for outstanding emerging artists and chamber musicians. Additionally, the quartet had the honor of being quartet-in-residence at London's Wigmore Hall for the 2000 - 01 season. The Brentano String Quartet has appeared with pianist Mitsuko Uchida at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, at the Library of Congress, at Lincoln Center, and in major cities in Germany, Italy, and Japan. The quartet has also collaborated with Jessye Norman in her 1998 Carnegie Hall recital as well as in the ancient amphitheater of Epidavros in Greece. In the fall of 1998, the Brentano String Quartet performed to great acclaim in various venues across Australia, including the prestigious Sydney Opera House and were featured in a "Live From Lincoln Center" broadcast. The Brentano String Quartet has made appearances in major musical centers in North America in New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, La Jolla, Detroit, Ann Arbor, Toronto, Washington, DC, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Baltimore, Houston, New Orleans, Kansas City, and Boston. In addition the Quartet has appeared in such European venues as Royal Festival Hall in London, the Accademia de Santa Cecilia in Rome, and in Frankfurt, Cologne, Florence, Geneva, Stuttgart, and Paris.

The Brentano's recent and upcoming festival appearances include the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland, Festival Divonne in France, the Bath Festival in England, the Kuhmo International Chamber Music Festival in Finland, Chamber Music Northwest, the San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival, Chautauqua, Caramoor International Music Festival, the Taos School of Music, and the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara.

The Quartet is named after Antonie Brentano, whom many scholars believe to have been Beethoven's mysterious "Immortal Beloved", and to whom he wrote his famous love confession. The quartet maintains a strong interest in the music of our time and has commissioned and premiered works by Milton Babbitt, Chou Wen-chung, Charles Wuorinen, Bruce Adolphe, Steven Mackey, and Jonathan Dawe. In addition, to celebrate its tenth anniversary the quartet commissioned ten composers to write brief companion pieces to Bach's "Art of Fugue". The quartet has collaborated in recent years with Pulitzer-prize winning poet Mark Strand, commissioning poetry for performances of Haydn's Seven Last Words of Christ, and are currently working with Strand on a program combining poetry with works of Mozart and Webern.

The quartet's recordings include a CD of music by Bruce Adolphe, one of Haydn's Op. 71 quartets, and one of works by Steven Mackey.