Fine Arts Quartet - Biographies

Ralph Evans Efim Boico Yuri Gandelsman Wolfgang Laufer

Founded in Chicago in 1946, the Fine Arts Quartet is one of the most distinguished ensembles in chamber music today, with an illustrious history of performing success and an extensive recording legacy. The Quartet, whose members Ralph Evans, Efim Boico, Yuri Gandelsman, and Wolfgang Laufer are artists-in-residence at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, is one of the elite few to have recorded and toured internationally for over half a century. Three of the Quartet's current artists have now been performing together for nearly 25 years.

Each season, the Fine Arts Quartet tours worldwide, with concerts in such musical centers as New York, London, Paris, Berlin, Rome, Madrid, Moscow, Tokyo, Beijing, Istanbul, Jerusalem, Mexico City, and Toronto. The Quartet also continues to record actively, with over 60 works recorded since 1985. The latest releases include: the complete Schumann Quartets on Naxos, which the American Record Guide in 2007 called "one of the very finest chamber music recordings of the year"; chamber music by Glazunov on Naxos, which Musicweb International named one of the best "Recordings of the Year 2007"; the complete Mendelssohn String Quintets on Naxos,
and the complete Dohnányi Quartets and Quintets on Aulos. Releases planned for 2008-9 include the complete Bruckner chamber music, the Fauré Piano Quintets, the Franck Quartet and Piano Quintet, and quartets by American composers (Antheil, Herrmann, Glass, Evans), all on Naxos, as well as the complete early Beethoven Quartets and three Shostakovich quartets on Lyrinx.

The Fine Arts Quartet's complete Schumann Quartets CD on Naxos was selected for the 50th Grammy Awards Entry List (2008) in two categories: "Best Classical Album" and "Best Chamber Music Performance". In addition, the Quartet's recordings of the complete Mozart String Quintets, released by Lyrinx in SACD format, were selected for the 2003 Grammy Entry List and designated a "Critic's Choice 2003" by the American Record Guide. Special recognition was given for the Quartet's commitment to contemporary music: a 2003-2004 national CMA/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming, given jointly by Chamber Music America and the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers.

The Quartet members have helped form and nurture many of today's top international young ensembles. They have been guest professors at the national music conservatories of Paris and Lyon, as well as at the summer music schools of Yale University and Indiana University. They also appear regularly as jury members of major competitions such as Evian, Shostakovich, and Bordeaux. Documentaries on the Fine Arts Quartet have appeared on both French and American Public Television. For more information on the Quartet, please visit: http://www.fineartsquartet.org

Join the Fine Arts Quartet July 2-13, 2008 at the magnificent Amalfi Coast Music & Arts Festival based in Vietri sul Mare, Italy, on the gorgeous Amalfi Coast. Guests can attend concerts, master classes, pre-concert lectures, and take advantage of the many educational offerings at the festival, such as art courses, Italian language classes, cooking lessons, and excursions to the area's famous monuments and cultural sites.

The Fine Arts Quartet will be Quartet-in-Residence at the Stradivari Foundation's annual celebration of stringed instruments and performers in Cremona, Italy, September 26 - October 4, 2008. Join a special Music & Markets Tour: "The Art Cities of Northern Italy" which features the Quartet.

Join the Fine Arts Quartet and artists from the Festival Pablo Casals de Prades for a Baltic music festival cruise on-board the luxurious Regent Seven Seas Voyager. In addition to concerts at sea, the cruise, July 15-26, 2008, includes visits to Stockholm, Tallinn, Helsinki,
St. Petersburg, Riga, Gdansk, Copenhagen, Kalmar, Klaipeda, and Szczecin.

FAQ recordings of the Franck String Quartet and Piano Quintet with pianist Cristina Ortiz to be released by Naxos in early 2009.
See Naxos News story about this upcoming release.

Major profile of FAQ by renowned author/journalist Jessica Duchen appears in December, 2006 issue of The Strad Magazine.

FAQ recordings of the two Fauré Piano Quintets with pianist Cristina Ortiz to be released by Naxos in early 2009.
See Naxos News story about this upcoming release.

FAQ recordings of quartets by American composers Antheil, Herrmann, Glass, and Evans, to be released by Naxos in July, 2008.
See Naxos News story about this upcoming release.

FAQ recording of the complete Mendelssohn String Quintets Op.18 and Op.87 was released by Naxos in May, 2008. This CD includes the first known recording of Mendelssohn's Minuetto in F-Sharp Minor movement, composed for the Quintet Op.18 but later replaced by a different movement before the Quintet was published. See Naxos News story about the recording session. For details on this CD: Naxos

FAQ recordings of complete Bruckner chamber music to be released by Naxos in December, 2008.
See Naxos News story about this upcoming release.

FAQ recording of the Glazunov Five Novelettes and String Quintet, released by Naxos in March, 2007, was named one of Musicweb International's "Recordings of the Year 2007".  For details on this CD: Naxos.

FAQ recordings of complete Schumann String Quartets released by Naxos in December, 2006, was named "one of the very finest chamber-music recordings of the year" by the American Record Guide in 2007 and was selected for the 50th Grammy Awards Entry List (2008) in two categories: "Best Classical Album" and "Best Chamber Music Performance". For details on this CD: Naxos

FAQ recordings of complete early Beethoven Op.18 Quartets to be released in 2008 on the Lyrinx label in SACD (Super Audio Compact Disc) format.

During the summer of 2008, the FAQ will appear in some of Europe's most distinguished concert series: the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, the Amalfi Coast Music Festival, Les Nuits Musicales du Suquet in Cannes, Le Festival de Quatuors à Cordes du Luberon,
Le Festival Clef du Soleil in Lille, and Le Festival de Musique en Bourbonnais.

During the summer of 2007, the FAQ appeared in many of Europe's most reknowned festivals: the Naantali Festival, Festival Pablo Casals de Prades, Festival de Quatuors à Cordes du Luberon, Festival International de Musique de Besançon, Fêtes Musicales de Savoie, Amalfi Coast Music Festival, Festival de Musique de Menton

FAQ's live performance of the Mozart Quartet K.464 (3rd & 4th movements) selected for NPR broadcast  (recorded June 3, 2005 at the Mainly Mozart Festival in San Diego)

Wisconsin Public Radio WUWM  interview with FAQ first violinist Ralph Evans, November, 2006

RALPH EVANS, violinist, prizewinner in the 1982 International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, concertized as soloist throughout Europe and North America before succeeding Leonard Sorkin as first violinist of the Fine Arts Quartet. Evans has recorded over seventy-five solo and chamber works to date. These include the two Bartók Sonatas for violin and piano, whose performance the New York Times enthusiastically recommended for its "searching insight and idiomatic flair," and three virtuoso violin pieces by Lukas Foss with the composer at the piano. Evans received a doctorate from Yale University, where he also graduated cum laude with a specialization in music, mathematics, and premed. While a Fulbright scholar in London, he studied with Szymon Goldberg and Nathan Milstein, and soon won the top prize in a number of major American competitions, including the Concert Artists Guild Competition in New York, and the National Federation of Music Clubs National Young Artist Competition. His award winning composition "Nocturne" has been performed on American Public Television and his String Quartet No.1, soon to be released on the Naxos label, has been recently premiered in the U.S., Germany, Israel, and France, where it was warmly greeted in the press ("seductive, modern sonorities" - France Ouest).

EFIM BOICO, violinist, enjoys an international career that has included solo appearances under conductors Zubin Mehta, Carlo Maria Guilini, Claudio Abbado and Erich Leinsdorf, and performances with Daniel Barenboim, Radu Lupu and Pinchas Zuckerman. After receiving his musical training in his native Russia, he emigrated in 1967 to Israel, where he was appointed Principal Second Violin of the Israel Philharmonic - a position he held for eleven years. In 1971, he joined the Tel Aviv Quartet as second violinist, touring the world with guest artists such as André Previn and Vladimir Ashkenazy. In 1979, Mr. Boico was appointed concertmaster and soloist of the Orchestre de Paris under Daniel Barenboim, positions he held until 1983, when he joined the Fine Arts Quartet. Mr. Boico has been guest professor at the Paris and Lyons Conservatories in France, and the Yehudi Menuhin School in Switzerland. He is also a frequent juror representing the United States in the prestigious London, Evian, and Shostakovich Quartet Competitions. As music professor at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, he has received numerous awards, including the Wisconsin Public Education Professional Service Award for distinguished music teaching, and the Arts Recognition and Talent Search Award from the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts.

YURI GANDELSMAN, according to the Jerusalem Post, "can undoubtedly be rated among the great violists of our time". Born in Tashkent, he studied in Moscow with professors Talalyan and Berlinsky, and after winning the National Viola Competition in 1980, he joined the Moscow Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra as a principal violist and soloist. He performed with leading musicians such as Richter, Kissin, Kagan, Gutman, Bashmet, and the Borodin Quartet, before leaving Russia in 1990 to become principal violist of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra under Mehta. He has been frequent soloist with the IPO, as well as with many European orchestras, and has performed in numerous festivals such as Verbier, Prades, Casals, Kuhmo, and Savonlinna. Gandelsman's recordings include: "Modern Portrait" with Spivakov and Kissin (RCA); Handel and Stamitz Concertos, and Britten's "Lachrymae" with the Moscow Virtuosi (Melodia); Telemann Trio Sonatas and Viola Concerto with the Moscow Virtuosi (Melodia); a CD/video recording of Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante with the Amati Chamber Orchestra for Dutch television; and most recently, the Bloch Suite for Viola and Orchestra (ASV) and the Brahms Sonatas and Schumann Marchenbilder (Lyrinx), which was named record of the month in France. For 12 years, he was professor of viola and chamber music at the Rubin Music Academy in Tel Aviv. In 2001, he was invited to join the Fine Arts Quartet.

WOLFGANG LAUFER, cellist, is an acclaimed soloist throughout Europe and the Americas. He has appeared as guest artist with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Israel Broadcasting Orchestra, Israel Sinfonietta, Hanover Symphony Orchestra, Radio Orchestra of Hamburg, and Freiburg Philharmonic Orchestra, and has toured Europe with the Wührer Chamber Orchestra and the United States with the Israel Chamber Orchestra. As a solo recitalist, Mr. Laufer has performed throughout North and South America, and in Europe. He emigrated from his native Romania to Israel in 1961, and completed his musical studies at the Tel-Aviv Academy, subsequently serving as principal cellist and soloist with Israel Chamber Orchestra, Malmo Symphony Orchestra of Sweden, Hamburg Philharmonic, and State Opera of Germany. Since 1979, Mr. Laufer has been in residence at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, as a member of the Fine Arts Quartet and Professor of Cello.

FINE ARTS QUARTET MEMBERSHIP HISTORY

1st Violin:   Ralph Evans       (1982-current),   Leonard Sorkin (1946-1982)
2nd Violin: Efim Boico          (1983-current),   Larry Shapiro (1980-83), Abram Loft (1954-80), Joseph Stepansky (1946-54)
Viola:          Yuri Gandelsman (2001-current), Michael Strauss (2000-1), Jerry Horner (1980-2000), Bernard Zaslav (1968-80),
                                                                         Gerald Stanick (1963-68), Irving Ilmer (1952-63), Sheppard Lehnhoff (1946-52)
Cello:          Wolfgang Laufer (1979-current),   George Sopkin (1946-79)

EARLY HISTORY of the FINE ARTS QUARTET (Sorkin-Sopkin era)

The Fine Arts Quartet was founded in 1946, although the group's members had actually begun working together as early as 1939 while playing in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. The Quartet's first performance took place in 1940 with Leonard Sorkin, first violinist, Ben Senescu, second violinist, Sheppard Lehnhoff, violist, and George Sopkin, cellist. Military service in World War II intervened, however, and it was not until 1946, now with the new second violinist Joseph Stepansky, that the Quartet began to rehearse and perform regularly. The complete membership history of the Fine Arts Quartet, from 1946 to the present, is detailed just above.

The Quartet performed on the ABC Radio Network's Sunday morning broadcasts from 1946 until 1954, and by the mid-fifties, was already considered one of America's finest quartets. There was an appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, frequent performances on the Today Show, and starting in 1958, the Quartet began to tour Europe annually. In the late sixties, the U.S. Department of State sponsored the Quartet's tours to Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Australia and New Zealand, and by the late seventies, the Quartet had already performed in some 270 cities in 28 countries. The Quartet continued to broadcast for radio in America (especially for WFMT-Chicago), in Europe (e.g. the BBC), and for television (concerts and educational programs for National Public Television).

The Quartet was also extremely busy recording, releasing an astonishing quantity of works (over 100) during its first 30 years of existence, including cycles of chamber music by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn, and Brahms, on such labels as Decca, Vox, Vanguard, and Concert Disc. But the Quartet was also appreciated for promoting contemporary music through performances, commissions, and recordings and played a major role in making composers such as Bartók, Shostakovich, Bloch, Babbitt, Wuorinen, Shifrin, Crawford-Seeger, Johnston, Husa, better known and accessible to the public.

The Quartet's first teaching residency, 1951-1954, was at Northwestern University. In 1963, the Quartet was invited to become
Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, and has been resident there ever since.

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