Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers, with one performer to a part. However, by convention, it usually does not include solo instrument performances.
Itzhak Perlman is an Israeli-American violinist. He has performed worldwide and throughout the United States, in venues that have included a state dinner for Elizabeth II at the White House in 2007, and at the 2009 inauguration of Barack Obama. He has conducted the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Westchester Philharmonic. In 2015, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Perlman has won 16 Grammy Awards, including a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and four Emmy Awards.
The Takács Quartet is a string quartet founded in Budapest, Hungary, and now based in Boulder, Colorado, United States.
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.
Lillian Fuchs was an American violist, teacher and composer. She is considered to be among the finest instrumentalists of her time. She came from a musical family, and her brothers, Joseph Fuchs, a violinist, and Harry Fuchs, a cellist, performed with her on various recordings.
The Hollywood String Quartet (HSQ) was an American string quartet founded by violinist/conductor Felix Slatkin and his wife cellist Eleanor Aller. The Hollywood String Quartet is considered to be the first American-born and trained classical music chamber group to make an international impact, mainly through its landmark recordings. These recordings have long been regarded as among the most outstanding recorded performances of the string quartet repertoire.
Josef Suk was a Czech violinist, violist, chamber musician and conductor. In his home country he carried the title of National Artist.
Michael Tree, born Michael Applebaum, was an American violist.
John Dalley is an American violinist. He was raised in a musical family. His father was an orchestra conductor, violinist, composer, instrumental teacher, and music educator. His mother, from Bloomington, Illinois, was a cellist, music teacher, and music publisher.
Ralph Henry Kirshbaum is an American cellist. His award-winning career combines the worlds of solo performance, chamber music, recording and pedagogy.
Jessica Linnebach is a Canadian classical violinist. She is a founding member of the Zukerman Chamber Players, as well as the Associate Concertmaster of the National Arts Centre Orchestra. Linnebach plays the Taft Stradivarius (1700) on loan from the Canada Council for the Arts.
Jethro Marks is a Canadian/American classical violist. He is the founding violist of the Zukerman Chamber Players and the Principal Violist of the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa.
The Quintetto Chigiano or Chigi Quintet was an Italian musical ensemble comprising a string quartet with pianoforte, founded in 1939 and active until 1966, when it was reformed as the Chigiano String Sextet. Led by Riccardo Brengola, it was first assembled by Count Guido Chigi-Saracini out of his Accademia Musicale Chigiana at Siena in Tuscany, Italy, but developed a worldwide acclaim.
The Philharmonia Quartet was an English string quartet musical ensemble founded during the early 1940s out of the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, though some of its members had collaborated during the 1930s in earlier ensembles. The formal career of the quartet ended in 1952. It is not to be confused with the Philharmonia Quartet Berlin, founded by Daniel Stabrawa and other members of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in 1985, nor with the Philharmonic Quartet.
The Spencer Dyke Quartet was a string quartet active in England through the 1920s. It was formed in 1918 and its personnel remained unchanged until August 1927 when Bernard Shore became the violist and Tate Gilder the second violin. It is best remembered now for a series of pioneering chamber music recordings made for the National Gramophonic Society. At the time of the recordings, the Quartet members were Edwin Spencer Dyke, Edwin Quaife, Ernest Tomlinson (viola) and Bertie Patterson Parker cello. Bernard Shore played viola in the last two recordings only.
Ashan Pillai is a British violist. He was educated as a music and academic scholar at Merchant Taylors School, London and then at the Royal Academy of Music, London, the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, the Banff Center for the Arts, Alberta, Canada, and the Juilliard School, New York City. His principal teachers were John White, and distinguished American pedagogues and former students of William Primrose, Donald McInnes and Karen Tuttle.
The New York Philomusica Chamber Ensemble is a musical ensemble founded in 1971 by A. Robert Johnson in New York City. The group presents an annual concert series of chamber music in New York City, Rockland County, and occasionally performs on tour. The ensemble owns the New York Philomusica Records label, which they use to sell albums of their music.
The Kutcher String Quartet was founded by its first violinist, Samuel Kutcher (1898-1984), who had by 1922 established himself as an accomplished solo artist and the previous year been a member of the Philharmonic String Quartet, playing second violin, along with Frederick Holding, E. Thomlinson (viola) and Giovanni Barbirolli (cello).
The Busch Quartet was a string quartet founded by Adolf Busch in 1919 that was particularly noted for its interpretations of the Classical and Romantic quartet repertoire. The group's recordings of Beethoven's Late String Quartets are especially revered.
Luz Leskowitz is an Austrian violinist, founder of the Salzburg Soloists music ensemble. He is the owner of the ex-Prihoda Stradivarius violin made in 1707.
