St. Lawrence String Quartet

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Biography

Geoff Nuttall, violin
Lesley Robertson, viola
Christopher Costanza, cello
Barry Shiffman, violin

Having walked on stage together over 1600 times in the past sixteen years the St. Lawrence String Quartet (SLSQ) has established itself among the world-class chamber ensembles of its generation. In 1992, they won both the Banff International String Quartet Competition and Young Concert Artists Auditions, launching them on a performing career that has brought them across North and South America, Europe and Asia.

The long awaited initial recording of the St. Lawrence Quartet, Schumann's First and Third Quartets, was released in May 1999 to great critical acclaim. The CD received the coveted German critics award, the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik, as well as Canada's annual Juno Award. BBC Music Magazine gave the recording its "highest rating," calling it the benchmark recording of the works. In October of 2001, EMI released their recording of string quartets of Tchaikovsky. In 2002 their recording Yiddishbbuk featuring the chamber music of the celebrated Argentinean-American composer Osvaldo Golijov received two Grammy nominations. Their most recent recording, Awakening, celebrates the string quartets of Christos Hatzis.

The Quartet performs over 100 concerts worldwide. Highlights of the 2005/06 season include their popular series Sunday's with the St. Lawrence for Stanford Lively Arts, a performance of music by Golijov and Schubert at New York's Lincoln Center, performances in Boston and Palm Beach with pianist Menahem Pressler, and appearances in Detroit, Cleveland, Atlanta, Baltimore, Houston, New Orleans, Salt Lake City, La Jolla, Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Urbana, IL, and Dartmouth College. The quartet will visit Europe in November with concerts in Holland, Germany and Switzerland, and will return in July for festivals in France and Germany with pianist Menahem Pressler. The season concludes with a 20 concert tour of Australia and New Zealand.

Their summer calendar features their 12th year as Resident Quartet to the Spoleto USA Festival in Charleston, SC. Other summer festival appearances include Green Music Festival in Sonoma CA, Albuquerque, Music@Menlo, CA, Ottawa, Parry Sound, ON, and Bay Chamber Concerts (Maine).

The SLSQ has been involved in numerous inventive collaborations, including a 2003 project with the renowned Pilobolus Dance Theatre, which premiered at Stanford University. The quartet appeared with the Emerson Quartet at Carnegie' s Zankel Hall, and with the Ying Quartet in Washington DC. They presented R. Murray Shafer's 4-40 with Peter Oundjian and the Toronto Symphony, Emmanuel Villaume and the Spoleto Festival Orchestra, and Yuli Turovsky with I Musici de Montreal.

The foursome regularly delivers traditional quartet repertoire, but is also fervently committed to performing and expanding the works of living composers. Among those with whom the St. Lawrence Quartet currently has active working relationships are R. Murray Schafer, Osvaldo Golijov, Christos Hatzis, Jonathan Berger, Ka Nin Chan, and Mark Applebaum.

Having been privileged to study with the Emerson, Tokyo and Juilliard String Quartets the St. Lawrence, are themselves passionate educators. Since 1998 they have held the position of Ensemble in Residence at Stanford University. This residency includes working with students of music as well as extensive collaborations with other faculty and departments using music to explore a myriad of topics. Recent collaborations have involved the School of Medicine, School of Education, and Jewish Studies. In addition to their appointment at Stanford, the SLSQ has served as visiting artists to the University of Toronto since 1995 and this season will inaugurate a new visiting chamber music residency at Arizona State University. The foursome's passion for opening up musical arenas to players and listeners alike is evident in their annual summer chamber music seminar at Stanford and their many forays into the depths of musical meaning with preeminent music educator Robert Kapilow.

The SLSQ is deeply committed to bringing music to less traditional venues outside the classroom or concert hall. Whether at Lincoln Center or an elementary school classroom, the St. Lawrence players maintain a strong desire to share the wonders of chamber music with their listeners, a characteristic of the foursome that has led them to a more informal performance style than one might expect from chamber musicians. Alex Ross of The New Yorker Magazine writes, "the St. Lawrence are remarkable not simply for the quality of their music making, exalted as it is, but for the joy they take in the act of connection."

The St. Lawrence String Quartet records exclusively for EMI/ANGEL.