Considered "Simply the best there is" by the Boston Globe,
the critically acclaimed Borromeo String Quartet is one of the most sought
after string quartets in the world, performing over 100 concerts of classical
and contemporary literature across three continents each season. Audiences
and critics alike champion its revealing explorations of Schoenberg, Brahms,
Ligeti, Kurtag, and Janácek, and affinity for making challenging
contemporary repertoire approachable. Lauded for its absolute mastery
of the complete Beethoven and Bartók quartet cycles, the ensemble
is currently focused on the work of Dmitri Shostakovich.
The Chicago Tribune calls the Borromeo “a remarkably accomplished
string quartet, not simply for its high technical polish and refined tone,
but more importantly for the searching musical insights it brings.”
The San Diego Reader calls their performances “a musical experience
of luminous beauty,” and the Boston Globe says "Each of the
greatest string quartets has redefined what the possibilities of the medium
are: through the perfection of its ensemble and intonation, through its
poise and its passion, the Borromeos are recreating the medium anew and
we are lucky to be here to hear it.
Since their explosive debut in 1989, the Borromeo have been regularly
heard in the world’s most illustrious concert halls, including the
Philharmonie, Casals Halls, the Concertgebouw, Opera Bastille, and Wigmore
Hall. In the United States, the group is a favorite at Weill Recital Hall
and Alice Tully Hall, Jordan Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the
Library of Congress, the Kennedy Center, and the National Gallery. The
quartet is regularly invited to perform in distinguished chamber music
series across the United States and abroad and has participated in the
Spoleto Festival in Italy, the Orlando Festival in the Netherlands, the
Stavanger Festival in Norway, Music Isle Festival in Korea, and in North
America at the Ravinia, Tanglewood, Caramoor, Santa Fe, Rockport, Cape
Cod, and Vancouver chamber music festivals, among others. First violinist
Nicholas Kitchen recently completed a six-year tenure as Artistic Director
of the Cape Cod Chamber Music.
The Borromeo Quartet's long-standing and celebrated residency at the Isabella
Stewart Gardner Museum has been called “one of the defining experiences
of civilization in Boston” [Boston Globe]; and its ongoing concert
series at the Tenri Cultural Institute in New York has been hailed as
“one of New York’s best kept secrets” [New York Sun].
They are faculty Quartet-in-Residence at the New England Conservatory
of Music as well as Dai-Ichi Semei Hall in Tokyo, and will return this
summer for a third season in residence at the famed Taos School of Music
in New Mexico. Their informal public masterclass series at NEC, “Early
Evenings with the Borromeo,” regularly attracts standing-room-only
crowds. They were commissioned by the Pittsburgh Chamber Music Society
in 2005 to conduct a five-month long series of outreach concerts throughout
the city focused on the music of Béla Bartók, including
Bartók Night, a one act play for solo actor and string quartet
by playwright Lynne Conner. In addition, the ensemble serves as an advisor
to Community MusicWorks of Providence, Rhode Island, an organization dedicated
to enriching the lives of inner city youths and families through classical
music.
In April 2007 the Borromeo Quartet was the recipient of prestigious Avery
Fisher Career Grant and in 2006 the Aaron Copland House honored the Borromeo's
commitment to contemporary music by creating the Borromeo Quartet Award,
an annual initiative that will premiere the work of important young composers
to audiences internationally. It has enjoyed collaborations with John
Cage, Gyorgy Ligeti, Osvaldo Golijov, Steve Mackey, John Harbison, Leon
Kirchner, Gunther Schuller, Jennifer Higdon, Derek Bermel, and Lior Navok.
In 2003 the Borromeo made classical music history with its pioneering
record label, the Living Archive Recorded Performance Series, making it
is possible to order DVDs and CDs of most of its concerts around the world.
The series allows listeners the chance to revisit in greater depth the
music they have just heard in concert, as well as explore new and rarely
performed works. Gramophone Magazine hailed the “great clarity and
beauty” and “ravishing fury” of the BSQ’s studio
recording of masterworks by Beethoven, and their CD featuring works of
Maurice Ravel was honored with the Chamber Music America/WQXR Award for
Recording Excellence in 2001. The are currently recording the compete
Quartets of Bela Bartok.
In 2000 the Borromeo String Quartet completed two seasons as a member
of Lincoln Center's Chamber Music Society Two and served as Ensemble-in-Residence
for the 1998-99 season of National Public Radio's Performance Today. They
are a regular guest on Rob Kapilow’s program What Makes It Great,
and can frequently be heard on NPR, NHK Radio and Television in Japan,
and KBS Radio and Television in Korea. Awards include Lincoln Center's
Martin E. Segal Award in 2001, Chamber Music America's Cleveland Quartet
Award in 1998 and the Young Concert Artists International Auditions in
1991, as well as top prizes at the International String Quartet Competition
in Evian, France in 1990.
www.borromeoquartet.com