Musical Teamwork with the Arianna String Quartet

The members of the ASQ offer a program illustrating teamwork, shared commitment, and what happens without a full and supportive commitment from each member of the team. Giving and receiving criticism and shared leadership are inherent the work of a string quartet, and to do this gracefully and productively is a vital component in the Arianna Quartet’s daily work with one another. Through interesting and compelling analogies that make the working process of a string quartet understandable, the quartet shows how that work relates to the personal and professional pressures and struggles that arise each day, and shares their thoughts on minimizing those stresses that we all face. 

This performance will be approximately 1 hour.

Artist Bio

Hailed for their outstanding musicianship, the Arianna String Quartet has established itself as one of America’s finest chamber ensembles. Their performances have been praised for “tonal warmth, fastidious balance and expressive vitality” (Chicago Tribune) and “emotional commitment and fluent virtuosity,” (Pretoria News, South Africa). Formed in 1992, the ASQ garnered national attention by winning the Grand Prize in the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition, First Prize in both the Coleman and Carmel Chamber Music Competitions, and were Laureates in the Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition.

The Arianna Quartet has appeared throughout North America, in South America, Europe, Asia, and South Africa. They have collaborated with many of the world’s most celebrated musicians, including members of the Vermeer, Tokyo, Cleveland and Juilliard Quartets, and their live performances have been heard on National Public Radio’s “Performance Today,” and “Live from Music Mountain”, which broadcasts to 125 stations in the U.S. and to 35 countries. The ASQ has recorded for Albany Records and Urtext Digital Classics, and extensively with Centaur Records. In addition to their critically acclaimed recording of the two string quartets of Janácek (“These performances of the Arianna String Quartet demonstrate how technical excellence, in alliance with imagination and the human heart, can come to create something truly transcendent.”-Fanfare), the ASQ has also recently completed their recordings of the Complete String Quartets of Beethoven (“I can’t stop listening to these performances. They thrill me, enthrall me, and arouse emotional responses in me of an intensity that can’t be described.”-Fanfare).

The members of the Arianna String Quartet serve on the faculty at the University of Missouri-St. Louis as professors of violin, viola, and cello. On the UMSL campus, the Arianna Quartet presents their own concert series, and also enriches the academic experience of students outside of the Music Department by visiting classes in physics, business, history, philosophy, art, and language to actively demonstrate the interdisciplinary connections between music and these seemingly disparate disciplines. The ASQ also presents an interdisciplinary performance and lecture series “First Mondays with the ASQ”, at KWMU, St. Louis Public Radio. The Arianna Quartet were recipients of the 2022 University of Missouri-St. Louis Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Collaborative Research and Creativity.

For over ten years, the Arianna Quartet has directed the Intensive Quartet Program at the Festival of Music in Santa Catarina, Brazil, working every year with young professional quartets from throughout South America. Additional highlights for 2022-23 have included concerts throughout the United States, returns to Madeline Island Chamber Music (WI), the Music Mountain Concert Series (CT), the Cedar Valley Chamber Music Festival (IA), and performances at the Jazz and Classics Music Festival in Juneau, as well as concerts in Anchorage and Sitka (AK).