Artist
Emerson String Quartet
Popular
Albums
Shostakovich: The String Quartets Nos. 7 - 10
2024 · Album
Emerson String Quartet: Schubert, Mendelssohn & Schumann
2023 · Album
Emerson String Quartet - Schubert & Brahms
2023 · Album
Emerson String Quartet - Dvořák
2022 · Album
Emerson String Quartet Legendary Recordings
2021 · Album
Schumann: String Quartets
2020 · Album
Chaconnes and Fantasias: Music of Britten and Purcell
2017 · Album
Berg: Lyric Suite; Wellesz: Sonnets By Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Op.52
2015 · Album
Mendelssohn: The String Quartets & Octet In Two Parts
2015 · Album
Meyer: Quintet . Rorem: Quartet No.4 - Emerson String Quartet
2013 · Album
Journeys
2013 · Album
Beethoven: The "Razumovsky" Quartets, Op.59; String Quartets, Op.74 & Op.95
2013 · Album
Beethoven: Späte Streichquartette op.132 & 135
2013 · Album
Mozart: The Prussian Quartets
2011 · Album
Beethoven: The String Quartets
2010 · Album
Old World – New World: Dvořák String Quartets
2010 · Album
Old World - New World
2010 · Album
Janáček: String Quartets Nos. 1 & 2 / Martinů: 3 Madrigals for Violin and Viola, H 313
2009 · Album
J.S. Bach: Fugues for String Quartet from The Well-Tempered Clavier
2008 · Album
Bach, J.S.: Fugues
2008 · Album
Prokofiev: String Quartets Nos.1 & 2; Sonata for 2 Violins
2007 · Album
Webern: Works for String Quartet; String Trio Op.20
2007 · Album
Emerson String Quartet - The String Quartet Revealed (CD 2)
2007 · Album
Emerson String Quartet - The String Quartet Revealed (CD 3)
2007 · Album
Singles & EPs
Compilations
Appears on
Infinite Voyage
Bertrand Chamayou
Limoncello: Celebrating Chamber Music
Denis Kozhukhin
The New York Concert (Live at Carnegie Hall, 2018)
Evgeny Kissin
Dvorák: Piano Quintet in A Major, Op. 81, B. 155: 3. Scherzo (Furiant). Molto vivace (Poco tranquillo) (Live in New York City / 2018)
Evgeny Kissin
Koussevitzky & Piston: Concertos
Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra
Barber: The Songs Complete
Cheryl Studer
Schubert: String Quintet In C Major D.956, Op. Posth. 163
Mstislav Rostropovich
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About
The Emerson String Quartet, also known as the Emerson Quartet, was an American string quartet initially formed as a student group at the Juilliard School in 1976. It was named for American poet and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson and began touring professionally in 1976. The ensemble taught in residence at The Hartt School in the 1980s and is currently the quartet in residence at Stony Brook University. Both of the founding violinists studied with Oscar Shumsky at Juilliard, and the two alternated as first and second violinists for the group. The Emerson Quartet was one of the first such ensembles 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 had released more than thirty albums and won nine Grammy Awards, as well as the prestigious Avery Fisher Prize in 2004. In 2017, the Emerson String Quartet Institute became part of the College of Arts and Sciences at Stony Brook University. The institute enables members of the current quartet and the quartet's former cellist David Finckel to mentor and coach student string quartets.
In August 2021, the quartet announced its plan to disband at the end of the 2022–2023 season in order to focus on teaching and solo work. In the final season of concerts in 2022-23, the quartet gave farewell performances throughout North America and Europe. The final performance of the quartet took place on Sunday, October 22, 2023, in New York City, featuring a program of Beethoven's Op. 130 string quartet (with its original ending, the Grosse Fuge, Op. 133) and Schubert's String Quintet D. 956. The performance was filmed by Tristan Cook for a documentary, Four Rational People, released in 2026.