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Eugene Drucker

Emerson String Quartet
The Emerson String Quartet 2014.jpg
The Emerson String Quartet in 2014
Background information
Also known as The Emerson Quartet
Origin New York City, United States
Genres Classical
Occupation(s) String quartet
Instruments 2 violins, 1 viola, 1 cello
Years active 1976–present
Labels Deutsche Grammophon, New World, Sony Classical
Website www.emersonquartet.com
Members Eugene Drucker
Philip Setzer
Lawrence Dutton
Paul Watkins
Past members Guillermo Figueroa
Eric Wilson
David Finckel

The Emerson String Quartet, also known as the Emerson Quartet, is a professional string ensemblein residence at the Stony Brook University. The musical ensemble was previously in residence at The Hartt School located in West Hartford, Connecticut. Choosing American poet and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson as namesake, the quartet formed at the Juilliard School as a student ensemble. They turned professional in 1976, with both of their violinists having studied under the tutelage of the renowned Oscar Shumsky, alternating as first and second violinists. When it was formed, the Emerson Quartet was one of the first with the two violinists alternating chairs.

The Emerson Quartet was inducted into the Classical Music Hall of Fame in 2010. As of May 2014, they have released more than thirty albums and won nine Grammy Awards, as well as the prestigious Avery Fisher Prize.

Long-time cellist David Finckel was replaced at the end of the 2012/13 concert season by Paul Watkins. Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim of the New York Times writes:

One of the characteristics of the Emerson Quartet is that its players (the violinists Eugene Drucker and Philip Setzer and the violist Lawrence Dutton in addition, now, to Mr. Watkins) all have the ability and the instruments to produce a sweet and glossy sound — but do so sparingly. Instead, they establish a chromatic scale of timbres that range from dry and tart over clean and zesty all the way to lustrous and singing. Listening to them pass tiny rhythmic motifs around the group, I was struck by how evenly calibrated these timbres were.


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