Emerson String Quartet January 23, 2007

Acclaimed for its insightful performances, dynamic artistry and technical mastery, the Emerson String Quartet has amassed an impressive list of achievements. Formed in the bicentennial year of the United States, the Emerson String Quartet took its name from the great American poet and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson. “Poetic violist” Lawrence Dutton, as noted by The Newyorker, and cellist “world class soloist” David Finckel, join violinists Eugene Drucker and Philip Setzer, both graduates of the Julliard Conservatory. As an ensemble, they have received three Gramophone Magazine Awards, seven Grammy Awards, and the Smithson Award from the Smithsonian Institution.

For three decades, the Emerson String Quartet has performed the classical and contemporary cycles of Beethoven, Bartok and Shostakovich, collaborated with such artists ranging from Paul McCartney to Barbara Bonney, and produced an unmatched mastery and enthusiasm through their award-winning performances and recordings. The Emerson’s subsequent release of their Bartok cycle in 1988 received the 1989 Grammy Awards for “Best Classical Album” and “Best Chamber Music Performance,” as well as Gramophone Magazine’s 1989 “Record of the Year Award.” In 2000, a five-concert series presented at New York’s Alice Tully Hall culminated with The Noise of Time, a theatrical presentation of the life of Dimitri Shostakovich directed by Simon McBurney featuring the Quartet. In March 2004, the Emerson became the first chamber ensemble to become the 18th recipient of the Avery Fisher Prize. In 2006-2007 the quartet celebrates its 30th Anniversary Season with an eight concert Perspectives Series titled “Beethoven In Context” that will be held in Carnegie Hall’s historic main venue, Isaac Stern Auditorium. The Emerson String Quartet is lauded globally as a standing string quartet that approaches both classical and contemporary repertoire with equal mastery and enthusiasm.

Official Website: http://www.usc.edu/student-affairs/spectrum/events.html?event=012307a