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| Jameson Cooper, violin Aviva Hakanoglu, violin Luis Enrique Vargas, viola Justin Goldsmith, cello |
Now in its 27th season, the EUCLID QUARTET enjoys one of the most highly regarded reputations of any chamber ensemble of its generation, with its members’ constituting a multinational mix representing three continents: violinist Jameson Cooper (Great Britain), violinist Aviva Hakanoglu (United States), violist Luis Enrique Vargas (Venezuela), cellist Justin Goldsmith (United States). Captivating audiences and critics ranging from Carnegie Hall to school classrooms to radio and television broadcasts, the quartet consistently performs to enthusiastic acclaim throughout the country.
Following a summer that include a debut on the prestigious series of Connecticut’s Music Mountain, the Euclid Quartet’s current season is highlighted by the world premiere of Anna Clyne’s Quarter Days with the South Bend Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Music Director Alastair Willis.
Formed in Ohio in 1998, the Euclid Quartet takes its name from famed Euclid Avenue in Cleveland, home to a wealth of renowned artistic and cultural institutions. Within three years, the ensemble was awarded the String Quartet Fellowship of the Aspen Music Festival, where it was invited to return for the subsequent summer’s concert season. The quartet was also invited to study with the Emerson String Quartet at the Carnegie Hall Professional Training Workshop.
Highlights of the Euclid Quartet’s career include significant global recognition as the first American string quartet to be awarded a top prize at the prestigious Osaka International Chamber Music Competition. Prior to its Japanese laurels, the quartet also won awards in numerous United States competitions, including the Hugo Kauder International Competition for String Quartets, The Carmel Chamber Music Competition and the Chamber Music Yellow Springs Competition. In 2009, the Euclid Quartet was awarded the esteemed “American Masterpieces” grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
The Euclid is a frequent guest ensemble at American and Canadian music festivals, among them those of Aspen, Great Lakes, Kent/Blossom, Mostly Modern and Orford, while expanded programs have included collaborations with internationally renowned artists, including Adrian Daurov, James Dunham, Gregory Fulkerson, Warren Jones, Paul Katz, Joseph Silverstein and Alexander Toradze.
In 2007, the Euclid Quartet was appointed to the prestigious string quartet residency at Indiana University South Bend, where its members teach private lessons and coach chamber music. Passionately devoted to presenting the highest quality chamber music to young audiences, these seasoned teaching artists have performed for thousands of students and young adults, in part, through support from the National Endowment for the Arts and collaborations with Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute and the Fischoff National Chamber Music Association.
Active in the recording studio, the Euclid Quartet issued a pair of CDs, comprising the six string quartets of Béla Bartók on Artek Recordings. The American Record Guide raved about these discs, “rarely has a group found such meaning and vision.” Their debut CD, on Centaur records, features the first four quartets of Hugo Kauder, a refugee from Nazi-occupied Austria who fled to the United States in the 1940s; he defied the atonal trend of his generation with his uniquely harmonic, contrapuntal style. On Afinat Records is “American Quartets: Antonín Dvorák & Wynton Marsalis,” including of Dvorák’s String Quartet #12 (“American”) and Marsalis’ At the Octoroon Balls - String Quartet #1. In 2024, Afinat released two CDs: “Breve,” a collection of beloved miniatures, comprised of Alvarez, Bolcom, Gershwin, Mozart, Piazzolla, Puccini, Schubert, Shostakovich, Turina, Webern and Wolf, and a pairing of the Grieg and Debussy string quartets in g minor.
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"Grieg & Debussy" GRIEG: String Quartet #1 in g, Op. 27 Afinat Records: AF2402 |
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“BREVE” Mozart: Adagio & Fugue, K. 546 Afinat Records: AF2401 |
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“AMERICAN QUARTETS: ANTONÍN DVORÁK & WYNTON MARSALIS” Dvorák: String Quartet #12 in F, Op. 96 (“American”) Afinat Records: AF1701 |
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BARTÓK: String Quartets 2, 4 & 6 ARTEK Recordings: AR-0053-2 |
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BARTÓK: String Quartets 1, 3 & 5 ARTEK Recordings: AR-0060-2 |
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HUGO KAUDER: String Quartets 1-4 Centaur Records: CRC 2840 |
Euclid Quartet - Breve [headline]
Celebrating their 25th anniversary, the Euclid Quartet’s new recording showcases contrasting musical gems. The most contrasting part of the recital consists of a wonderfully lilting reading of William Bolcom’s Graceful Ghost Rag, a raucous take on the Polka from Shostakovich’s The Golden Age, a street-smart serenade in the form of Gershwin’s Lullaby and a tour de force performance of Javier Álvarez’s relentlessly teasing Metro Chabacano, written to be played during an exhibition of kinetic sculptures in the Mexico City station. And they thoroughly immerse themselves in the sad heroic romanticism of Turina’s very popular La oración del torero. Their command is exhilarating in its silken breadth and sleek virtuosity.
GRAMOPHONE
Euclid Quartet: Breve [headline]
With every disc they release there always seems to be something new to admire about the Euclid Quartet. There’s the intelligence of their approach to anything they touch, the refreshing interpretation they bring to repertoire, a result of the fact that it always speaks to the ensemble in an incredibly distinct way, quite beyond the black dots on staved paper. Both those aspects plus the textural richness and variety [across projects] that they invariably bring to each recording is enormously affecting.
This 2024 project – so appropriately entitled Breve – not only celebrates the eleven short works contained within in inimitable fashion, but commemorates the quarter of a century of the quartet in the grand manner. The attractive set invites listeners to undertake an adventure woven into a span of three hundred years through the breathtaking continuum of music, spending an evening – from the 18th to the 21st century dancing and passing the time in the convivial company of works by Mozart, Puccini, Wolf, Shostakovich, Gershwin, Webern, and Piazzolla, as well as Javier Alvarez and Joaquin Turina. The recording is a wondrous voyage of discovery of variety, and sentiment emotionally delivered with breathtaking virtuosity and a sublime sensitivity to convention and style so elegantly appropriate to each age.
Each of the members of the quartet emerges as consort musician and soloist with a uniquely personal voice and the give and take of this beautifully constructed programme is perfectly calibrated. A quiet contender come Awards season, surely.
WORLD MUSIC REPORT
SOUL OF WIT - The Euclid Quartet’s new album celebrates music in miniature [headline]
This recent disc by the Euclid Quartet presents 11 single-movement compositions by 11 different composers. The Euclids demonstrate artistry in a wide variety of styles, and by alternating warhorses with less familiar compositions in non-chronological order, the Euclids provide a refreshingly diverse program that is well worth a listen.
STRINGS
What an interesting pairing of works the Euclid Quartet have come up with for their new disc. ‘American Quartets’ teams Dvorák’s String Quartet No 12 in F, known as the American, with
Wynton Marsalis’s String Quartet No 1, At the Octoroon Balls.
There is little hard evidence of anything specifically American within Dvorák’s quartet but its
spirit appears to have been influenced by the composer’s residency in the United States
(1892-95). The music overflows with folk-like material – perhaps more Czech than Yankee –
and the prevailing atmospheres are suffused with the warmth, pride and vitality this composer
wore so generously on his sleeve. The Euclid Quartet play the piece with bounties of fervour
and poetry, while always heightening the score’s meticulous craftsmanship.
Marsalis continues to be a musician of wondrous resourcefulness. His First String Quartet
evokes American Creole traditions in his native New Orleans through seven movements of
varied and inventive incident. The opening movement, ‘Come Along Fiddler’, is an expansive
tour de force for solo violin. The subsequent buoyant and lyrical movements explore a range of
cultural references, with blues, ragtime and jazz giving the string quartet a kaleidoscopic
workout.
The Euclid musicians make a veritable feast of the score. Jameson Cooper exults in the first
movement’s beguiling flights, and he and his colleagues are at turns tender, whimsical and
stirring in Marsalis’s other smashing bursts of imagination.
GRAMOPHONE
Masterful quartet handles masterpieces with ease [headline]
The Euclid Quartet’s reading [Beethoven Quartet #7] emphasized the romantic gestures throughout the four movements. They negotiated technical demands in a satisfactory way, and delivered a solid rendition of this multi-faceted gem. They fared even better with Debussy’s String Quartet, clearly music that matched the members’ temperament as an ensemble. The Euclid Quartet gave an energetic rendition, highlighting the many changes of color and textures throughout. The pizzicato movement was particularly impressive. This was, no doubt, the best performance of the work this critic has heard on these shores. All in all, a most revelatory evening of superb chamber music.
PALM BEACH DAILY NEWS
The Euclid Quartet rises above mere technical excellence, and performs with openness and joy. They are an energetic group with great focus and personal drive; their performances are impassioned, musical and communicative.
James Dunham
former violist, Cleveland Quartet
The Euclid opened the evening with Claude Debussy’s String Quartet in G Minor - a work whose strange, elusive beauty can leave you breathless. The group played it well, with an elegant mix of passion, ferocity and feathery delicacy.
THE WASHINGTON POST
The impressiveness of the Euclid Quartet extended to all the styles it performed on Saturday, when it made its Pittsburgh début. Their emotional and timbral richness brought to mind the old-world approach of the Guarneri Quartet. The Euclid performance was devoted, expert and exhilarating.
PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
A knockout performance
LOS ANGELES TIMES
Groups selected for this prestigious series [Wiliamstown Chamber Concerts] uniformly represent the best of the current crop of touring ensembles. The Euclid is no exception. They’ll make their mark as a major ensemble in years to come; they’re that good.
THE ADVOCATE WEEKLY (Berkshires region)
The Euclid Quartet has a refined warm, rich tone, precise ensemble, and spot-on intonation. They play with great expression, and the subtle use of gestures is always included at the perfect moment and with impeccable good taste.
MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL
The Euclid Quartet has demonstrated that it is pure gold in these spectacular performances [CD of Bartók Quartets 2, 4, 6].
ALL MUSIC GUIDE
Rarely has a group found such meaning and vision.
AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE
The performances [CD of Bartók Quartets 2, 4, 6] are sweeping and detailed, with all of the fierce intensity the music suggests, played with seamless interplay and cohesion. The Euclid has triumphed, with performances of rare commitment and passion
GRAMOPHONE
The Euclids played their hearts out for the full house attending their concert at the Flagler Museum. This foursome reminded me not just of the Emerson but the Tokyo String Quartet, and it might be that they deserve to rank in that august company. The Grieg quartet, in any case, received a brilliant reading, and was met by a well-deserved standing ovation. We were, after all, in the presence of great artistry.
PALM BEACH ARTS PAPER
Their concert performance at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall had wonderful intensity, insight and communicative strength.
Ara Guzelimian
former Senior Director & Artistic Advisor
Carnegie Hall
| 6/16/2024 (3pm) | MUSIC MOUNTAIN SUMMER FESTIVAL (Falls Village, CT) Gordon Hall Kauder: String Quartet #4 |
| 11/9/2024 (7pm) | AMERICAN MUSIC FESTIVAL (NC) First Presbyterian Church (Morehead City) Coleridge-Taylor: 5 Fantasiestücke |
| 11/10/2024 (4pm) | CHAMBER MUSIC WILMINGTON (NC) Beckwith Recital Hall, University of NC Wilmington Coleridge-Taylor: 5 Fantasiestücke |
| 11/11/2024 (4pm) | THE CEDARS CLASSICAL CONCERT SERIES (NC) The Ballroom, The Cedars of Chapel Hill Coleridge-Taylor: 5 Fantasiestücke (Prelude & Dance) |
| 11/12/2024 (4pm) | THE CYPRESS OF RALEIGH (NC) Coleridge-Taylor: 5 Fantasiestücke (Prelude & Dance) |
| 11/12/2024 (7:30pm) | CAROLINA MEADOWS (Chapel Hill, NC) Coleridge-Taylor: 5 Fantasiestücke (Prelude & Dance) |
| 11/13/2024 (11am) | GALLOWAY RIDGE AT FEARRINGTON (Pittsboro, NC) Chapin Auditorium Coleridge-Taylor: 5 Fantasiestücke (Prelude & Dance) |
| 1/26/2025 (4pm) | SANTA ROSA JUNIOR COLLEGE (CA) Newman Auditorium |
| 2/2/2025 (4pm) | GUALALA ARTS CENTER (CA) |
| 2/8/2025 (7:30pm) | DEL VALLE FINE ARTS CONCERT SERIES (Livermore, CA) Bankhead Theater, Livermore Valley Performing Arts Center |
| 2/9/2025 (1pm) | PALM SPRINGS CONCERTS (CA) Richards Center for the Arts at Palm Springs High School |
| 5/4/2025 (2pm) | SOUTH WINDSOR CULTURAL ARTS (CT) Evergreen Crossings Retirement Community Theatre |
| 5/5/2025 (7pm) | KIMBALL FARMS LIFECARE RETIREMENT COMMUNITY (Lenox, MA) |
| 5/7/2025 (12pm) | STOWE PERFORMING ARTS (VT) Stowe Community Church |
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Beethoven: String Quartet #9 in C, Op. 59, #3 (mvt: III: Menuetto grazioso–Trio) |
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Florence Price: String Quartet #1 in G (mvt. II: Andante moderato) |
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Debussy: String Quartet in g (mvt: I: Animé et très décidé) |
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Debussy: String Quartet in g (mvt: III: Andantino, doucement expressif) |
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Piazzolla: Four for Tango |
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Euclid Quartet’s YouTube Channel |