The phenomenal Dover Quartet catapulted to international stardom after they won every prize at the 2013 Banff International String Quartet Competition. Since then, they’ve received the Cleveland Quartet Award and an Avery Fisher Career Grant, and they’ve become one of the most in-demand quartets in the world. Their rise from up-and-coming young ensemble to a top group in their field has been “practically meteoric” (Strings).
With its burnished warmth, incisive rhythms, and natural phrasing, the quartet’s distinctive sound has helped confirm the group’s status as “the young American string quartet of the moment” (The New Yorker). The Dover Quartet serves as quartet-in-residence for the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University, Chamber Music Northwest, Artosphere, the Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival, and the Peoples’ Symphony in New York City. They were also recently named the first-ever quartet-in-residence at The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.
During the 2018–19 season, the Dover Quartet appears in more than 100 concerts across North America, including at The Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall in New York City, Spivey Hall at Clayton State University, and Herbst Theatre (through San Francisco Performances). Additional engagements include the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Celebrity Series of Boston, and Chamber Music Society of Detroit; tours of Hong Kong, Europe, and Australia; collaborations with Emanuel Ax, Inon Barnatan, Peter Serkin, Anthony McGill, and the vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth; and premieres of new works by Caroline Shaw and Matan Porat. The quartet was also thrilled to be invited by the maverick filmmaker and cultural icon David Lynch to be featured at his Festival of Disruption in Los Angeles this past October.
The Dover Quartet plays on the following instruments: Violinist Joel Link: Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume, Paris, ca. 1857, on loan from Desirée Ruhstrat. Violinist Bryan Lee: Riccardo Antoniazzi, Milan, 1904. Violist Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt: Michele Deconet, Venice, 1780, the “Kroyt,” generously on loan from the grandson of Boris Kroyt of the Budapest String Quartet. Cellist Camden Shaw: Sam Zygmuntowicz, Brooklyn, 2010.