Fine Arts Quartet

Fine Arts Quartet
Fine Arts Quartet
Background information
Origin	Chicago, Illinois, United States
Genres	Classical
Occupation(s)	String quartet
Instruments	2 violins, 1 viola, 1 cello
Years active	1946–present
Website	fineartsquartet.com
Members	Ralph Evans Efim Boico Juan-Miguel Hernandez Robert Cohen

The Fine Arts Quartet is a chamber music ensemble founded in Chicago, United States in 1946 by Leonard Sorkin and George Sopkin. The Quartet, based at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee since 1963, has recorded and toured internationally for over half a century, making it one of the longest enduring major string quartets. In its history, the Quartet has had two leaders: Sorkin, from 1946 to 1981, and Ralph Evans, from 1982 to the present. Since 2014, its members have been violinists Ralph Evans and Efim Boico (who have been playing together in the Quartet for more than 30 years), violist Juan-Miguel Hernandez, and cellist Robert Cohen.

Although the Fine Arts Quartet was founded in 1946, the group's members had begun working together as early as 1939 while playing in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. The Quartet's first performance took place in 1940 with Leonard Sorkin, Ben Senescu, Sheppard Lehnhoff, and George Sopkin. Military service in World War II intervened, however, and it was not until 1946, now with the new second violinist Joseph Stepansky, that the Quartet began to rehearse and perform regularly.

The Quartet members have helped nurture many young international ensembles. Their first teaching residency, 1951–1954, was at Northwestern University. In 1963, the Quartet was invited to become Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, and its members have been professors there ever since. In recent years, they have also been guest professors at the national music conservatories of Paris and Lyon, as well as at the summer music schools of Yale University and Indiana University. They have appeared as jury members of major competitions such as Evian, Shostakovich, and Bordeaux. Documentaries on the Fine Arts Quartet have appeared on both French and American public television.