Friends of Music welcomes the return of the excellent young Dover Quartet, lauded by The New Yorker as both “exciting and accomplished.” The Wall Street Journal has described their playing as “masterly, nuanced” with “gutsy and earthy sound,” while the Santa Fe New Mexican has said that to hear them is to be in “string quartet nirvana.” Although violist Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt will leave the quartet at the end of August, they have announced that they are “excited to share the news that the Dover Quartet has appointed Hezekiah Leung as its violist for a season-long appointment starting in September. You may know Hezekiah as a founding member of the Rolston String Quartet, the first prize winner of the 2016 Banff International String Quartet Competition and the recipient of the 2018 Cleveland Quartet Award. Hezekiah’s excellent artistry and musicianship, combined with his experience performing in an award-winning string quartet, make him an excellent fit for this appointment. Joel, Bryan, and Camden are thrilled to begin performing with him.”

The quartet was nominated for the 2021 Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance for their recording of Robert Schumann’s string quartets.

The Dover Quartet has released three albums on Cedille Records: Tribute: Dover Quartet Plays Mozart, Voices of Defiance, and Beethoven Complete String Quartets, Volume 1 – The Opus 18 Quartets.

This afternoon’s performance includes:

• Joseph Haydn, Quartet in C Major, Hob. III:77, Op. 76, No.3 (“Emperor”)
• Amy Beach, Quartet for Strings (in one movement), Op.89
• Felix Mendelssohn, Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 44, No.3