Robin Hixon Theater, Jay and Clay Barr Education Center
Concert co-presented with the Virginia Arts Festival
Program:
HAYDN String Quartet in F minor, Op.20, No.5
BORODIN String Quartet No.2 in D major
MENDELSSOHN String Quartet No.6 in F minor, Op.80
These phenomenal young players formed their quartet when they were just 19-year-old students at the Curtis Institute. There followed a stunning sweep of top awards and a leap to international stardom, with The New Yorker magazine naming them “the young American string quartet of the moment.” Virginia Arts Festival audiences will have a chance to hear them in repertoire that includes Mozart as part of the André-Michel Schub celebration. That’s good news: in the spate of glowing reviews that have greeted their performances, The Washington Post particularly admired their way with Mozart: “the sound was lambent and evenly balanced, with the musicians delighting in uncovering this near-perfect score’s musical details and, tellingly, enjoying hearing one another play it. A triumph!”
“The Dover Quartet players have it in them to become the next Guarneri String Quartet — they’re that good. Expert musicianship, razor-sharp ensemble, deep musical feeling and a palpable commitment to communication made their performances satisfying on many levels.” – Chicago Tribune
“The Dover Quartet’s Kennedy Center debut shows why they should be on must-hear list.” The Washington Post
he Grand Prize but all three Special Prizes at the 2013 Banff International String Quartet Competition. The Quartet also won top prizes at the Fischoff Competition and the Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition, and has taken part in festivals such as Chamber Music Northwest, Artosphere, La Jolla SummerFest, Bravo! Vail, and the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. During the 2013-14 season, the Quartet acted as the Ernst Stiefel String Quartet-in-Residence at the Caramoor Festival. Additionally, members of the Quartet have appeared as soloists with some of the world’s finest orchestras, including the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Tokyo Philharmonic.
The Dover Quartet draws from the musical lineage of the Cleveland, Vermeer, and Guarneri Quartets, having studied at the Curtis Institute and Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, where they were in residence from 2011-2013. The Quartet has been mentored extensively by Shmuel Ashkenasi, James Dunham, Norman Fischer, Kenneth Goldsmith, Joseph Silverstein, Arnold Steinhardt, Michael Tree, and Peter Wiley, and is dedicated to sharing their music with underserved communities and is an active member of Music for Food, an initiative to help musicians fight hunger in their home communities.