Fine Arts Quartet

Ralph Evans, Efim Boico, and Nicolò Eugelmi, are delighted to announce that cellist Robert Cohen  has joined the Fine Arts Quartet in January 2012.

During the months July-September 2011, the Fine Arts Quartet appeared in many renowned international festivals, among them: Ottawa's Music and Beyond Festival, Amalfi Coast Music & Arts Festival, Lille's Festival Clef de Soleil, Festival des Arcs, Musicales Internationales Guil Durance, Festival Pablo Casals de Prades, Sion Festival, and the George Enescu Festival in Bucharest.

Wolfgang Laufer, cellist of the Fine Arts Quartet since 1979, died of cancer on June 8, 2011. See his obituary in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, and a list of Laufer's recordings with the Fine Arts Quartet.

The Fine Arts Quartet, with pianist Xiayin Wang, has recorded three chamber music masterpieces by Robert Schumann: the Piano Quintet, Piano Quartet, and Piano Trio (Fairy Tales). The sessions, which took place December 13-16, 2010 at the American Academy of the Arts and Letters in New York, were produced and engineered by Grammy® Award winner Steven Epstein. This CD, the Fine Arts Quartet's 11th recording for the Naxos label, is expected to be released in September, 2012 . See Naxos News story about the recording session.

The 2011 Gramophone Classical Music Guide singled out the Fine Arts Quartet's Fauré Quintets CD with pianist Cristina Ortiz on Naxos as a "Gramophone award-winner and recording of legendary status". The Guide also labeled it as, "Simply the best: An unrivalled version, a cornerstone of the catalogue. A real gem!", and listed it as among the Guide's top 100 recordings. "Ideally balanced and recorded, Cristina Ortiz and the Fine Arts Quartet offer performances that are warmly affectionate, fluent and musicianly to the core. Surpassing Domus's fine Hyperion disc, these are outstanding readings."

The Fine Arts Quartet has recorded 3 rareties by "Golden Age" master violinist-composers: the world premiere recording of Efrem Zimbalist's Quartet in E Minor in its 1959 revised edition; the world premiere digital recording of Eugène Ysaÿe's long-lost masterpiece for quartet and string orchestra, "Harmonies du Soir"; and Fritz Kreisler's Quartet in A Minor. Sessions took place 26-30 April, 2010 at the library of Wittem Monastery (Klooster Wittem), The Netherlands. For the Ysaÿe work, the Fine Arts Quartet was joined by the Philharmonic Orchestra of Europe, conducted by Otis Klöber. For details on this CD, the Fine Arts Quartet's 10th recording for the Naxos label, click here: Naxos. See Naxos News story about the recording session.

The Fine Arts Quartet recording of the two Saint-Saëns String Quartets (Op.112, Op.153) on the Naxos label was released by Naxos in April, 2011. See Naxos News story about the recording session. For details on this CD: Naxos

Read the Naxos interview with Fine Arts Quartet first violinist Ralph Evans, given by Jeremy Siepmann on April 21, 2011.

Mitch Miller died July 31, 2010 in Manhattan at the age of 99. The New York Times described him as "an influential record producer who became a hugely popular recording artist and an unlikely television star a half century ago by leading a choral group in familiar old songs and inviting people to sing along." In 1947, Miller joined the Mercury Records label as a classical producer. The first album he produced, the Fine Arts Quartet recording of Schubert’s "Death and the Maiden" Quartet, won France's Grand Prix du Disque.

During the summer of 2010, the Fine Arts Quartet appeared in many of Europe's most renowned festivals: the Amalfi Coast Music & Arts Festival, Lille's Festival Clef de Soleil, Festival Internacional de Música da Póvoa de Varzim, Le Festival de Musique de Musicalta, Fêtes Musicales de Savoie, Nuits Musicales de Mazaugues, Festival Musicales Internationales Guil Durance, Academia Internacional de Musica de Solsona, and the Festival du Périgord Noir.

The Fine Arts Quartet's recording of the Franck String Quartet and Piano Quintet with pianist Cristina Ortiz  is designated an "EDITOR'S CHOICE" by Gramophone Magazine in February 2010.

The Fine Arts Quartet’s Fauré CD with pianist Cristina Ortiz was among the recordings for which musical producer Steven Epstein won a a 2009 Grammy® Award (Producer of the Year, Classical). The other recordings were: Yo-Yo Ma & Friends' Songs Of Joy And Peace; the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra's (David Robertson) Doctor Atomic Symphony by John Adams; the Nashville Symphony Orchestra's (Leonard Slatkin) Dylan Thomas Trilogy by Corigliano; and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's (Marin Alsop) Mass by Bernstein.

The Fine Arts Quartet's recording on Naxos of the Fauré Quintets with pianist Cristina Ortiz is named one of "The Best Classical Recordings of 2009"...One of top 3 in the chamber category by ArkivMusic in January 2010 and was designated a MusicWeb International critic's choice: "Recording Of The Year 2009" in December 2009.

The Fine Arts Quartet recording of three Beethoven String Quintets (Op.29, 104, 137) with violist Gil Sharon was released by Naxos in June 2010. See Naxos News story about the recording session. For details on this CD: Naxos.

The Fine Arts Quartet wins a "Best of Milwaukee 2009" Award for "Best Classical Music Ensemble" (November 16, 2009).

The Fine Arts Quartet recordings of the Franck String Quartet and Piano Quintet with pianist Cristina Ortiz were released by Naxos at the end of October 2009. See Naxos News story about the recording session. For details on this CD: Naxos.

Read the Naxos interview with Fine Arts Quartet first violinist Ralph Evans, given by Stephen Schafer, Editorial Manager for Naxos International Marketing on October 21, 2009.

Ralph Evans, Efim Boico, and Wolfgang Laufer, the three Fine Arts Quartet artists who are celebrating a quarter-century of touring together, are pleased to announce that violist Nicolò Eugelmi joined the Quartet in July 2009.

The Fine Arts Quartet recording of the two Fauré Piano Quintets with pianist Cristina Ortiz was released by Naxos in June 2009.
See Naxos News story about the recording session . For details on this CD: Naxos.

During the summer of 2009, the Fine Arts Quartet appeared in many of Europe's most renowned festivals: the Naantali Festival, Festival Pablo Casals de Prades, Amalfi Coast Music & Arts Festival, Le Festival Berlioz, Festival Internacional de Música Pau Casals, Festival l'été Musical en Bergerac, Lille's Festival Clef de Soleil, and the Festival de Musique de Pontlevoy.

The Fine Arts Quartet recordings of the complete Bruckner chamber music were released by Naxos in December, 2008.
See Naxos News story about the recording session. For details on this CD: Naxos.

The Fine Arts Quartet recordings of the complete early Beethoven String Quartets Op.18 were released in October 2008 on the Lyrinx label in SACD (Super Audio Compact Disc) format. For details on this CD: SA-CD

Cellist George Sopkin, who founded the Fine Arts Quartet along with Leonard Sorkin in 1946, died on October 28, 2008 at the age of 94. Here are obituaries in the Bangor News and in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, and a list of Sopkin recordings.

The Fine Arts Quartet was invited to be Quartet-in-Residence at the Stradivari Foundation's annual celebration of stringed instruments and performers in Cremona, Italy, September 26 - October 4, 2008.

The Fine Arts Quartet's Naxos recording, "Four American Quartets", is designated a "BBC MUSIC CHOICE" by BBC Music Magazine in August 2008.

Listen to Podcast: Four American Quartets (Aug 4, 2008) by Raymond Bisha, a Naxos classical music spotlight on the new Fine Arts Quartet recording of four string quartets by American composers: Philip Glass, George Antheil, Bernard Hermann, and Ralph Evans.

The Fine Arts Quartet recording of "Four American Quartets" by Antheil, Herrmann, Glass, Evans, released by Naxos in July 2008, was selected for the 2009 Grammy Awards Entry list in the "Best Classical Album" category. See Naxos News story about the recording session. For details on this CD: Naxos.

The Fine Arts Quartet and artists from the Festival Pablo Casals de Prades performed on 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, included visits to Stockholm, Tallinn, Helsinki, St. Petersburg, Riga, Gdansk, Copenhagen, Kalmar, Klaipeda, and Szczecin.

During the summer of 2008, the Fine Arts Quartet appeared in some of Europe's most distinguished concert series: the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, Amalfi Coast Music & Arts 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.

The Fine Arts Quartet recording of the complete Mendelssohn String Quintets Op.18 and Op.87, released by Naxos in May 2008, was named a Musicweb International "Recording of the Year 2008" and was selected for the 2009 Grammy Awards Entry list in the "Best Classical Album" category. 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.

During the summer of 2007, the Fine Arts Quartet appeared in many of Europe's most renowned 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 & Arts Festival, Festival de Musique de Menton.

The Fine Arts Quartet recording of the Glazunov Five Novelettes and String Quintet, released by Naxos in March 2007, was named a Musicweb International "Recording of the Year 2007".  For details on this CD:  Naxos.

The Fine Arts Quartet 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.

A major profile of the Fine Arts Quartet by renowned author/journalist Jessica Duchen appears in the December 2006 issue of The Strad Magazine.

Listen to a Wisconsin Public Radio WUWM interview with Fine Arts Quartet first violinist Ralph Evans, November 2006.

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

During the 2003-4 season, the Fine Arts Quartet gave world premiere performances of Efrem Podgaits's extraordinary quintet, Ex Animo, with guest artist Friedrich Lips, one of the world's foremost bayanists. This Quintet, commissioned by the Fine Arts Quartet, was the first piece Podgaits (born in 1949) had written for the combination of string quartet and bayan-accordion.