The Dover Quartet concluded its first year in a three-year residency at the Bienen School with a series of events at Northwestern during the spring quarter. In addition to performing in the Mary B. Galvin Recital Hall, the quartet-in-residence — whose members include violinists Joel Link and Bryan Lee, violist Milena Pajaro van de Stadt, and cellist Camden Shaw— also led a master class for Bienen students and served as judges for the first Dover Quartet Competition. 

The ensemble performed Hugo Wolf’s Italian Serenade and the second string quartets of Shostakovich and Janacek (“Intimate Letters”) in a concert April 26 in Galvin Recital Hall. Following the performance, the Dover Quartet said via Facebook, “Can you believe this gorgeous concert hall? Our first year as quartet-in-residence has been spectacular, and it already feels like home!”

Recognized as “the young American string quartet of the moment” (New Yorker), the Dover Quartet had just made its Carnegie Hall debut weeks before the Bienen School performance in April.

Earlier this spring, the quartet added the Hunt Family Award – one of the inaugural Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Awards – to its growing list of accolades, which includes a sweep of the 2013 Banff International String Quartet Competition and top prizes at the Fischoff and Wigmore Hall International competitions.

The quartet coached several Bienen School chamber groups in a master class April 28 in Pick-Staiger Concert Hall. In May, the quartet members returned to Northwestern and joined Frank Babbit, violist in the Lyric Opera Orchestra, to adjudicate the inaugural Dover Quartet Competition. Six string quartets performed in the competition with the top prize going to The Laydeez Quartet, an ensemble that includes alumnae violinists Susannah Foster (G15) and Sabrina Tabby (G16), violist Tara Lynn Ramsey (11), and Riana Anthony, a cello master’s student of Hans Jørgen Jensen.

The Dover Quartet returns for three public performances in 2016-2017, including a recital as part of the 21st annual Winter Chamber Music Festival. More information and tickets will be available online at concertsatbienen.org.

The Dover Quartet’s residency at the Bienen School and the Winter Chamber Music Festival are supported by a generous grant from the Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation.