Guarneri Quartet
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The Guarneri Quartet is an American string quartet founded in 1964.
The renowned Guarneri String Quartet has circled the globe countless times since it was formed in 1964, playing in the world's most prestigious halls in North and South America, Mexico, Europe, Asia and Australia.
The 2002-2003 season finds them touring extensively throughout the United States and Europe as well as the Far East for performances in Shanghai and Taipei. They also continue their annual Metropolitan Museum of Art six-concert series, instituted in 1965, as well as their longstanding series and residency at the University of Maryland.
In addition to mastering the finest works in the existing quartet repertoire, the Guarneri String Quartet is committed to performing and popularizing works by today’s foremost composers. In the 2001-2002 season, the Guarneri gave the first performances of String Quartet #5, written for them by Lukas Foss. The National Symphony Orchestra commissioned a concerto for string quartet and orchestra, written expressly for the Guarneri String Quartet by the award winning American composer, Richard Danielpour. The piece was premiered with the National Symphony Orchestra at Washington DC’s Kennedy Center on January 13,14, and 15, 2000, under the direction of Leonard Slatkin, and given its New York premiere at Carnegie Hall on January 25, 2000.
The Quartet has been featured on many television and radio specials, documentaries and educational presentations both in North America and abroad. They have been interviewed by Charles Kuralt on CBS’ nationwide television program, "Sunday Morning." A full-length film entitled "High Fidelity – The Guarneri String Quartet" was released nationally, to great critical and public acclaim, in the fall of 1989. (The film was directed and produced by Allan Miller who was also the director/producer of the Academy Award-winning documentary, "From Mozart to Mao," which dealt with Isaac Stern’s visit to China). The quartet is also the subject of various books including Quartet by Helen Drees Ruttencutter (Lippincott & Crowell, 1980), The Art of Quartet Playing: the Guarneri in Conversation with David Blum (Alfred A. Knopf, 1986) and Arnold Steinhardt’s Indivisible by Four: A String Quartet in Pursuit of Harmony (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998).
In 1982, Mayor Koch presented the Quartet with the first New York Seal of Recognition. The Quartet was awarded Honorary Doctorate degrees by the University of South Florida (1976) and the State University of New York (1983). In 1992, the Guarneri String Quartet became the only quartet to receive the prestigious Award of Merit from the Association of Performing Arts Presenters in New York City. The Quartet is also on the faculty of the University of Maryland. The Guarneri String Quartet currently records for Surroundedby Entertainment, which released its first CD in Spring 2001 of Quartets by Ravel, Debussy and Fauré. Several of its recordings on both RCA Red Seal and Philips have won international awards, including its recent recording of Juan Crisostomo de Arriaga’s String Quartet Nos. 1-3 (Philips), which won the 1996 Deutsche Schallplattenkritik Award in Germany. Among its other award-winning recordings are collaborations with such artists as Artur Rubinstein, Pinchas Zukerman; and Boris Kroyt and Mischa Schneider of the Budapest Quartet. They have also recorded for the Arabesque label, Mendelssohn’s String Quartet No. 3 and its first ever recording of the great Mendelssohn Octet, Op. 20, in collaboration with the Orion Quartet.
Members
- Arnold Steinhardt (b.1937), 1st violin
- John Dalley (b.1935), 2nd violin
- Michael Tree (b.1934), viola
- David Soyer (b.1923), cello (from 1964 to 2001)
- Peter Wiley, cello (since 2000)
Books
- David Blum, The Art of String Quartet Playing
- Arnold Steinhardt, Indivisible by Four
External links
- University of Maryland faculty bio (http://www.music.umd.edu/bios/guarneri.html)
- 2001 andante interview (http://www.andante.com/article/article.cfm?id=12739)