Active from 1986 | Genre Classical | |
Members Sato Knudsen, Ronan Lefkowitz, Si Jing Huang, Mark Ludwig Albums String Quartets, Virtuoso Trumpet, Previn Plays Previn Record labels Decca Records, Channel Classics Records, Kleos Classics, Terezín Music Foundation, Naxos Similar Virginia Eskin, Pavel Haas, Viktor Ullmann, Andreas Delfs, Thomas Oboe Lee | ||
The Hawthorne String Quartet is an American string quartet, all four of whose members are players from the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Although its repertoire ranges from the 18th century to contemporary works, the ensemble specializes in works by composers who were interned at the Terezín concentration camp during World War II and other "Entartete Musik" composers. Their recordings of music by three of these composers, Pavel Haas, Erwin Schulhoff and Hans Krása, were released on the Decca Records Entartete Musik series.
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History
A Boston-based ensemble, the Hawthorne String Quartet takes its name from the New England novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne and was founded in 1986. Its violist, Mark Ludwig, is also the Founder and Director of the Terezin Music Foundation. Since its founding, the Quartet have toured both in the United States and internationally, and performed in Prague in 1991 at the commemorations marking the 50th anniversary of the first transportations of Jews from that city to the Terezin concentration camp. They have since returned several times to Prague, most notably for the 2009 and 2010 editions of the Prague Spring International Music Festival. At the 2009 Festival, they gave a concert to mark the inauguration of the Terezín Living Legacy Commission, playing works by Josef Suk, Gideon Klein, Charles Ives, Elliott Carter and the world premiere of Pavel Zemek's Zvony světla (Bells of Light). At the 2010 Festival, they played in the world premiere of André Previn's Clarinet Sonata with Thomas Martin on clarinet and the composer on piano.
One of the ensemble's more unusual collaborations, was their 2009 performance at the Tanglewood Music Festival where they played Hans Krása's String Quartet while artist Jim Schantz simultaneously created a landscape painting in response to the music. The Quartet also perform for the community outreach programs of both the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Terezín Chamber Music Foundation, and since 1998 have been artists-in-residence at Boston College, where Mark Ludwig also teaches music in the Faculty of Jewish Studies.
Members
Discography
Film scores
Songs
Sonate - Op 21: I Allegro vivoVirtuoso Trumpet · 2009
Trio: I AllegroChamber Music from Theresienstadt - Klein & Ullmann · 1991
Septet in E-Flat Major - Op 65: I PréambuleVirtuoso Trumpet · 2009