Brentano String Quartet
The Brentano String Quartet is an American string quartet .
history
The quartet was founded in 1992 at the Juilliard School in New York . Founding members were Mark Steinberg (1st violin), Serena Canin (2nd violin), Misha Amory (viola) and Michael Kannen (violoncello). At the suggestion of pianist Thomas Sauer , Serena Canin's husband, the quartet was named after Antonie Brentano , who is considered Beethoven's " Immortal Beloved ".
The quartet made their public debut in New York in February 1994. In 1995 they received the Naumburg Award and the Martin Segal Prize. In May 1998, after his wife was injured in a car accident, Kannen left the quartet to look after his child and was replaced by Nina Lee. However, Kannen continues to appear as a guest of the quartet.
From 1999 to 2014 the quartet was the first ensemble-in-residence at Princeton University . In November 2013 it became a quartet-in-residence at the Yale School of Music .
The Brentano Quartet has awarded several commissions to composers, including Gabriela Lena Frank , and has also initiated new works under the titles "Art of the Fugue Project" and "Fragments Project".
The ensemble achieved international attention with the soundtrack to the film Saiten des Lebens (2012) with Philip Seymour Hoffman , Christopher Walken and Catherine Keener . In the same film, Nina Lee also makes a brief appearance in which she plays herself as the cellist of a fictional piano trio conducted by Wallace Shawn .
Discography (selection)
- Bruce Adolphe , Turning, Returning (CRI, 2000)
- Charles Wuorinen , Chamber Music (Naxos, 2011)
- Ludwig van Beethoven , String Quartet in E flat major op.127 and String Quartet in C sharp minor op.131 (Aeon, 2011)
- Eric Moe , Of Color Braided All Desire (Albany Records, 2015)