madison string quartet

The Quartet

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"...so much devotion and romantic spirit, power and tenderness...just beautiful!"

--Neue Wernigeröder Zeitung

 

Praised for its energetic performances and inventive programming, the Madison String Quartet “has carved a niche out for themselves by exploring Hispanic literature from both sides of the Atlantic”. (Paul Somers, Classical New Jersey) The Quartet is involved in blurring the line between performer and audience, creating a comfortable performance atmosphere for masterworks from past and present.

    The Quartet recently released a second CD recording, focusing on the works of New Jersey composer David Rimelis. Its 2004 recording, Life is a Dream, was received with rave reviews, and displays the eclectic programming that has become its hallmark. It includes the world premiere of pieces by award-winning composer Miguel del Aguila, as well as quartets by Silvestre Revueltas and Peter Schickele. In addition to championing Latin works, the Quartet has also collaborated with many composers in its home state of New Jersey, including Dale Trumbore, Paul Moravec, and Charles Griffin. Paul Moravec’s Vince and Jan: 1945 was featured by the Quartet at the first annual “Facebook Friends” performance organized by composer Douglas Townsend. New York-based poet Kate Light has worked with MSQ to present her collection “Einstein’s Mozart”, a performance including poems from her book intertwining the two mens’ lives and work. In April 2016, the Quartet presented the world premiere of “In Kharms’ Way”, a theater piece for quartet and actors by Ray Luedeke.

    From 2008 to 2016, MSQ was quartet-in-residence at the Kenai Peninsula Summer Festival in Alaska. In 2010, the Quartet was presented at the Museum of the City of New York by Música de Cámara, highlighting the quartet by 19th-century Venezuelan composer Teresa Carreño. Other highlights of recent seasons include a performance at Carnegie Hall of Imitación Serial para Cuerdas by composer Modesta Bor, as well as engagements with several chamber series, including the Friends of Music in Westchester, Mozart and Friends in Princeton, and the Rhinebeck Chamber Series. In Rhinebeck, the Quartet gave “a mesmerizing performance of Schubert's ‘Death and the Maiden,’ a quartet the house listened to like a story heretofore untold”. (Kitty Montgomery, Kingston Daily Freeman)

 

As part of their 20th anniversary in 2019, the Madison String Quartet  made their first European tour, to Austria and Germany. In Vienna, they performed at the Arnold Schoenberg Center this composer's 1942 work “Ode to Napoleon”, as well as the world premiere of a piece by Venezuelan composer Icli Zitella, inspired by Schoenberg’s “Survivor from Warsaw”.