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The Emerson String Quartet stands alone in the history of string quartets with an unparalleled list of achievements over three decades: over thirty acclaimed recordings produced with Deutsche Grammophon since 1987, nine Grammy awards (including two for “Best Classical Album”, an unprecedented honour for a chamber music ensemble), three Gramophone Awards, the coveted Avery Fisher Prize and cycles of the complete Beethoven, Bartók, Mendelssohn and Shostakovich string quartets in the world’s musical capitals.
The 2010-2011 season includes a three-concert series at London’s Wigmore Hall and the world premiere of Thomas Adès’ The Four Quarters in Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium, a work the quartet will later perform at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and at the South Bank Centre in London. Additional international performances are planned for France, Russia, Mexico and Norway in addition to numerous cities in Germany, Italy, Denmark, Switzerland and Austria. North American engagements take the Emerson Quartet to Montreal, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Detroit, Chicago, Houston, Costa Mesa, San Diego, Santa Barbara, Seattle and Vancouver. Following enthusiastic acclaim of its 2009 debut performances in South America, the ensemble will return there in May 2011 for a second tour. The Emerson Quartet continues its residency at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC, now in its 31st sold-out season.
The Emerson is the Quartet-in-Residence at Stony Brook University where, in addition to a concert series, teaching and chamber music coaching throughout the academic year, it conducted intensive string quartet workshops in 2004, 2006 and 2008. The Quartet has also overseen three Professional Training Workshops at Carnegie’s Weill Music Institute. In the 2006-2007 season, Carnegie Hall invited the Emerson Quartet to present its own Perspectives series, a nine-concert exploration entitled Beethoven in Context, held at the Isaac Stern Auditorium. In March 2004 the Emerson Quartet was named the 18th recipient of the Avery Fisher Prize – another first for a chamber ensemble.
Formed in 1976, the Emerson String Quartet took its name from the American poet and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson. Violinists Eugene Drucker and Philip Setzer alternate in the first chair position and are joined by violist Lawrence Dutton and cellist David Finckel. Since
January 2002 Drucker, Setzer and Dutton have stood for their performances while Finckel sits on a podium. The Quartet is based in New York City.
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