More about Artaria
History of the Quartet
The Artaria Quartet was formed in the Bay Area over ten years ago
to perform the classic string quartets based on the members' experience as
pioneers in the early music movement. In the past decade they have become
America's leading ensemble using the gut strings and lighter bows
characteristic of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Their
repertoire includes works by dozens of composers, from Gabrieli to
Schoenberg, but with emphasis on Haydn, Mozart, Boccherini, and their
lesser-known contemporaries. They have been presented in concert at
Columbia University and the Frick Collection in New York City, twice at the
Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., at the Regensburg Festival in Germany,
and in many venues up and down the west coast. They have been repeat guests
at the San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival, the San Jose Chamber Music Society,
the Redwoods Summer Festival, and have performed twice at the Berkeley
Festival. Their 1991 concert for the San Francisco Early Music Society was
nationally broadcast and won the Lucien Wulsin Performance Today Award from
National Public Radio. Four compact discs have been released by Harmonia
Mundi USA, including the complete Guitar Quintets of Boccherini and chamber
music of Mozart.
The Artaria Quartet was a 1997-98 participant in Chamber Music
America's A Musical Celebration of the Millennium, and in the 1996-97
season was awarded a residency grant. Both programs supported appearances
in schools and hospitals as well as chamber music workshops for students
and amateurs.
Although the members of the Artaria Quartet pursue their own
separate careers as performers and teachers, they nevertheless often find
themselves sitting together at the front desks of other groups, such as
Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, the American Bach Soloists, or the Boston
Early Music Festival Orchestra. Still, it was their love of chamber music
and of the special rewards of the classical style which brought them
together in the first place; that and the fact they gladly exchange
positions within the quartet, even during concerts, help to keep their
playing, their interpretations, and their enjoyment of what they do
together fresh and stimulating.
The Players
ANTHONY MARTIN is a founding member of Philharmonia Baroque
Orchestra, Frans Brueggen's Orchestra of the 18th Century, Aston Magna, the
Smithsonian Chamber Players, the Boston Early Music Festival, the American
Bach Soloists and other early music ensembles. He holds degrees from
Stanford University and the Peabody Conservatory. He is on the faculty of
Stanford University and is Director of the San Francisco Conservatory
Baroque Ensemble and the Collegium Musicum at the University of California
at Berkeley.
ELIZABETH BLUMENSTOCK is a graduate of the Royal Netherlands
Conservatory of Music and is widely acclaimed as a virtuoso violinist and
violist. She is a member of and frequent soloist with Philharmonia Baroque
Orchestra. She is also a member of numerous other baroque ensembles
including the Arcadian Academy, Concerto Amabile, American Baroque, and
Musica Pacifica, with all of whom she has recorded many cds. Her most
acclaimed recording is of the complete Bach Violin Sonatas with
harpsichordist John Butt.
KATHERINE KYME studied at the University of California at Berkeley
and Yale University and has served on the faculties of Yale, the University
of Puget Sound, the Cornish Institute of Seattle, and Sonoma State
University. She has recorded with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, the
Streicher Piano Trio, the American Bach Soloists, and the Arcadian Academy.
She has served as concertmistress of the Midsummer Mozart Orchestra, the
San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival Orchestra, and as leader of the Sierra
String Quartet.
ELISABETH LE GUIN completed a Ph.D. in musicology at the University
of California at Berkeley while teaching at the San Francisco Conservatory
of Music and is now on the faculty of the University of California at Los
Angeles. She is much in demand as one of the most respected continuo
cellists in America as well as a leader of orchestral cello sections, a
recitalist, and a concerto soloist. She has recorded with Philharmonia
Baroque Orchestra, the American Bach Soloists, Concerto Amabile, the Boston
Early Music Festival, and many others.
Discography
(with Richard Savino)
Harmonia Mundi USA cd 907039/mc 407039
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(with Richard Savino)
Harmonia Mundi USA cd 907026/mc 407026
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(with Richard Savino)
Harmonia Mundi USA cd 907069/mc 407069
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(with Marc Schachman and Eric Hoeprich)
Harmonia Mundi USA cd 1907107/mc 407107