Another string quartet bows out
NewsA sombre year that has seen the disbandment of the Emerson, the Spektral and the Auryn quartets now ends with the news that the Orion String Quartet are packing their bags.
Resident at New York’s Mannes College The New School for Music from 1987 until 2018, the quartet is made up of two violinist brothers, Todd and Daniel Phillips, with violist Steven Tenenbom and cellist Timothy Eddy.
They will play out their valedictory season with Bartok’s six quartets, Beethoven’s 16, some Haydn and Schubert and Leon Kirchner’s four quartets, the last of which was written for Orion.
“Having had the privilege for so many years to explore and perform some of the greatest music ever written, we have come to feel that many of these works have actually become a part of our physical and spiritual being,” the Quartet said. “We have chosen to leave our audiences with some final presentations that still fully articulate what we have experienced in this wondrous journey. We look forward to continuing to reach out to inspire people with our recordings, individual performances, and our love of teaching.”
Sorry Norman, but the Orion Quartet left Mannes about five years ago and The JACK Quartet is the resident string quartet.
I recall an excellent Schubert quartet recording with Daniel Phillips playing 2nd violin alongside Kremer, Ma and Kashkashian. For a one off quartet recording they blended nicely with the expected virtuosity.
I worked with that quartet for many years at carnegie hall a great bunch of guys a retired stagehand
One of the best, one of many based in NYC, of the Boomer generation. Make room for the kiddies. What’s saddest about the string quartet takeover of the chamber music industry, is that it shoved out the trios, quintets, and every kind of mixed ensemble. Only one or two woodwind quintets are allowed to perform. Flute and harp duos are a thing of the past.