Muir String Quartet
Peter Zazofsky - violin
Lucia Lin - violin
Steven Ansell - viola
Michael Reynolds - cello

Biography

In its 30th season, the Muir String Quartet has long been acknowledged as one of the world's most powerful and insightful ensembles, distinguishing itself among audiences and critics with its "exhilarating involvement" (Boston Globe),"impeccable voicing and intonation" (San Francisco Examiner) and "unbridled musicality" (American Record Guide).  

Winner of the 1981 Naumburg Chamber Music Award and 1980 Evian Competition, the Muir String Quartet was greeted with rave reviews and an extensive feature in the New Yorker. They were soon featured on the internationally acclaimed PBS broadcast, In Performance at the White House for President and Mrs. Reagan.  Formed in 1979 following graduation from the Curtis Institute of Music and studies at Yale University, the Muir’s principal mentors were Felix Galimir and the Budapest and Guarneri Quartets.

In its commitment to advancing contemporary American music, the Muir Quartet has commissioned new works by Joan Tower (Night Fields), Sheila Silver (From Darkness Emerging), Richard Danielpour (Shadow Dances and Psalms of Sorrow -featured on CBS Sunday Morning), Richard Wilson (Third String Quartet), and Charles Fussell (Being Music, based on poetry of Walt Whitman).  The quartet also gave the premiere performance of the Native American collaborative work, Circle of Faith, featured on National Public Radio.  Recently premiered works include those by Richard Danielpour (Feast of Fools for bassoon and string quartet), Lucas Foss (String Quartet #4), Ezra Laderman (String Quartets #9 and #10), Joelle Wallach (String Quartet #3), and Ronald Perera’s first Quartet. In 08-09, in addition to their annual appearances at Rhode Island College, the Muir performs throughout the North America, including numerous concerts with legendary pianist Menachem Pressler, and a marathon performance of Joan Tower’s works at the Kennedy Center. The Muir’s recording of the Kreisler, Berg Op. 3 and Schulhoff 5 Pieces will be released on the EcoClassics label this season. Their recordings have garnered a Grammy nomination (the Mozart and Brahms Clarinet Quintets with Mitchell Lurie: EcoClassics), a Grammy (Beethoven String Quartets Op. 132 and 133), two Grand Prix du Disques (Franck Quintet with Jean-Phillipe Collard and Chausson’s Concert with Dumay and Collard: EMI), and the Gramophone Award (Franck Quintet: EMI). Their recordings on EcoClassics have long provided benefit to conservation organizations and support the mission of Classics for Kids Foundation. Highlights of the 2009-2010 season include performances of the complete Beethoven Quartets in Boston, Montana, and Utah.

The Muir Quartet has been In Residence at Boston University's College of Fine Arts since 1983, and gives annual summer workshops at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute.  The Muir Quartet has also given master classes at Eastman, Curtis, Oberlin and Rice University.  Since 1989, the quartet has presented the Emerging Quartets and Composers Program in Utah with eminent composer Joan Tower, now part of the Muir’s role as resident chamber ensemble with the Deer Valley Festival, in partnership with the Utah Symphony/Opera.

Website: http://www.muirstringquartet.org

Critical Acclaim

Houston Chronicle
By Charles Ward

"Three stylistically distinct works didn't suffer at all from the uniformly gorgeous playing of the Muir String Quartet in its Thursday return to the Houston Friends of Music chamber series. In Haydn's Quartet, Op. 50, No. 1 (1787) came the elegant precision of classical-period forms enriched by occasional chromaticism.

Leos Janácek's String Quartet No. 1 (1923), Kreutzer Sonata, was a polar opposite of temperament and form: brooding restlessness conveyed through kaleidoscopic variety.

A voluptuous middle ground at the Rice University concert was Brahms' Clarinet Quintet (1891), formally allied with Haydn but emotionally more akin to Janácek."

Boston Globe
By Ellen Pfeifer

"This was a riveting concert that demonstrated the timeless fascination of that iconoclastic innovator, Beethoven. The playing by violinists Peter Zazofsky and Lucia Lin, violist Steven Ansell, and cellist Michael Reynolds – the transparency of textures, the equality of all voices, the intensity of expression – was particularly impressive."

Newsday
By Jeremy Eichler

"From the first movement of this overly familiar piece(Brahms C minor Quartet) , the ensemble offered a striking interpretation that combined well-grounded musical ideas with playing of smoldering intensity. Among the ideas presented was the frequent use of tempos slower than one customarily hears. This was a particularly convincing in the opening Allegro, where the quartet’s deliberate playing allowed it to harness the driving force of the movement’s motoric theme, and build the tension toward a dizzying climax. A similar technique was used to exhilarating effect in the final bars of the piece."