About the Klein Competition

For four decades, the Klein Competition has championed the world’s finest young string players through professional and performance skills, providing performance opportunities, monetary support, and a community for their growth. The competition also seeks to develop wider audiences for classical music in the San Francisco Bay area through the annual Irving M. Klein International String Competition, a yearly competition which presents the world’s finest string players (ages 15-23) to local audiences, collaborations with other musical organizations to produce concerts and recitals featuring young musicians, outreach activities into schools and community centers to broaden the awareness of and access to great music, and commissioning new works in connection with its ongoing activities.

Founded in New York City in 1981, the Alexander String Quartet established itself as one of the world’s premier ensembles after winning the 1982 Concert Artists Guild Competition and then becoming the first American quartet to win the Wigmore (then Portsmouth) International String Quartet Competition in 1985. After a remarkable 44-year tenure, Spring 2025 will bring the retirement of the quartet, following a final, celebratory season.

“We look forward to our final season, in which we will be revisiting several festive gatherings with some of our favorite and esteemed musical friends – both artists and presenters alike. We are fortunate to be able to cherish and share so many happy memories, gathered over more than four decades of collaborative music-making,” says the quartet’s founding cellist Sandy Wilson.

Highlights of the 2024-25 Season will include a return to the Ludwig van Beethoven Easter Festival in Poland, as well as final residencies with San Francisco Performances, the Mondavi Center, and St. Lawrence University.

The Alexander String Quartet currently comprises violinists Zakarias Grafilo and Yuna Lee, violist David Samuel, and founding cellist Sandy Wilson. After the 2024-25 Season, all members will continue to perform and teach, carrying forward the legacy of the quartet as an ensemble dedicated to music education.

Mentoring the next generation of chamber musicians and chamber music lovers has long been central to the Alexander String Quartet, and the ensemble’s educational work won them honorary doctoral degrees from St Lawrence University and Allegheny College, and Presidential Medals from Baruch College (CUNY). For decades, the ensemble has trained generations of gifted performers, emerging string quartets, and talented young musicians destined to pass on their knowledge and love of music as teachers in schools across the globe. Over the ensemble’s 44-year tenure, they have served as quartet-in-residence with St. Lawrence University, Allegheny College, Baruch College (CUNY), and San Francisco State University, as well as San Francisco Performances and the Mondavi Center, where they presented an educational series with composer Robert Greenberg.

“I have known the Alexander String Quartet since 1986,” says composer, music historian, and pianist Robert Greenberg. “They have been performing my music since 1988, and we have shared the stage and performed programs together continuously since 1992. Very simply, personally and professionally, my relationship with the ASQ has been the single highpoint of my musical life. They are a magnificent quartet. But much more, they are – and have always been, individually – magnificent people.”

The mentorship legacy of the quartet includes fostering the Afiara Quartet, Del Sol Quartet, Hausmann Quartet, Sausalito Quartet, and the Tower Quartet, as well as countless other young musicians who have continued their careers in chamber music, orchestral performance and teaching.

“The ASQ has had a profound impact on generations of young musicians and ensembles across the US and abroad,” said David Samuel, current violist and founding member of the Afiara Quartet. “When we founded the Afiara Quartet in 2006, it was a direct result of the support, mentorship, and opportunities afforded us by the ASQ which opened the door for us to enjoy such an artistically and professionally rewarding career.”

The Alexander String Quartet has performed at Lincoln Center, the 92nd Street Y, the Metropolitan Museum, Jordan Hall, and the Library of Congress, as well as numerous overseas tours, including the U.K., the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, France, Greece, the Republic of Georgia, Argentina, Panamá, and the Philippines. Their 2015 visit to Poland’s Ludwig van Beethoven Easter Festival was beautifully captured in the award-winning documentary, Con Moto: The Alexander String Quartet.

Samuel Carl Adams, Elliott Carter, Aaron Copland, George Crumb, Joyce DiDonato, Marc- André Hamelin, Lynn Harrell, Jake Heggie, Branford Marsalis, Midori, Tarik O’Regan, Wayne Peterson, David Sánchez, Richard Stoltzman, Augusta Read Thomas, and Joyce Yang are just some of the many distinguished instrumentalists, singers, and composers with whom the Alexander String Quartet has collaborated in performance and recording projects crossing genres from classical to jazz, rock, and folk in its more than four decades of music making. Their most recent collaborative project, “British Invasion,” brings the Quartet together with guitarist William Kanengiser to explore the music of Sting, Led Zeppelin, John Dowland, and the Beatles by way of contemporary composers Ian Krouse, Dušan Bogdanović, and Leo Brouwer.

The Alexander String Quartet founded, and will continue, the Foghorn Classics label, on which it has released an extensive recording catalog. Their recordings have included the complete string quartet cycles by Bartók, Beethoven, Brahms, Kodály, and Shostakovich, and a series of Mozart’s chamber music entitled “Apotheosis” in collaboration with Paul Yarbrough and Joyce Yang. Other major recordings include the 2020 release of the Mozart and Brahms clarinet quintets (with Eli Eban) and the 2019 release, “Locale,” featuring Dvořák’s “American” quartet and piano quintet (with Joyce Yang). Their recording catalog also includes Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, Rückert-Lieder, and Kindertotenlieder song cycles in transcriptions for mezzo-soprano (with Kindra Scharich) and string quartet by the Quartet’s first violinist, Zakarias Grafilo. The quartet’s discography has helped to preserve the legacy of a matched set of instruments known as the Ellen M. Egger Quartet, made in San Francisco by the late Francis M. Kuttner.

The ensemble would especially like to thank Aaron and Freda Silberman and Family for their enduring support.

This opening performance is a highlight of Crowden and ASQ’s inaugural Chamber Music Festival at Crowden, launched as part of Crowden’s 40th anniversary season this year.

Program:

• Tarik O’Regan: Gradual
• Leoš Janáček: String Quartet, No. 1, “Kreutzer Sonata”
• Jean Sibelius: String Quartet, Op. 56 in d minor, “Voces Intimate”

The Alexander String Quartet is excited to be joining Christina Daysog Concert Artists for its North American management.

Having just released the final volume in its series of Mozart’s Chamber Music, Mozart: String Quintets – Apotheosis, Vol. 3 with founding violist Paul Yarbrough, and just begun its season with new second violinist Yuna Lee, the Alexander String Quartet is look towards 2024 and beyond. 

Upcoming performances include the continued series with San Francisco Performances and the Mondavi Center featuring “Chamber Music at the Turn of the 20th Century” and “Music as a Mirror of Our World” with composer and music-historian Robert Greenberg. 

The Alexander String Quartet stands among the world’s premier ensembles, having performed in the major music capitals of five continents. The quartet is a vital artistic presence in its home base of San Francisco, serving since 1989 as Ensemble in Residence of San Francisco Performances. Widely admired for its interpretations of Beethoven, Mozart, and Shostakovich, the quartet’s recordings have won international critical acclaim. Founded in New York City in 1981, the ensemble quickly captured attention, initially winning the Concert Artists Guild Competition in 1982, and then becoming the first American quartet to win the London (now Wigmore) International String Quartet Competition in 1985. The members of the Alexander String Quartet are recipients of honorary degrees from Allegheny College and St. Lawrence University, and Presidential medals from Baruch College (CUNY).

Since its inception, the Alexander String Quartet has maintained an unyielding and passionate commitment to education. For decades, the ensemble has trained generations of gifted performers, emerging string quartets, and talented young musicians destined to pass on their knowledge and love of music as teachers in schools across the globe. The 2023-24 season marked the beginning of a new initiative that brings together the quartet’s expertise in education and devotion to its community. Partnering with schools, arts organizations, and community institutions in the Bay Area and beyond, the Alexander String Quartet will be hosting a series of innovative workshops, performances and collaborations that are designed to support and bolster chamber music awareness and education for individuals from all walks of life.

The quartet looks forward to this new collaboration with Christina Daysog Concert Artists.

“Divine is an adjective one could comfortably apply to any note of music Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ever wrote, especially the six gems that he wrote during the last four years of his life.

Divine is also one of many words of praise one could apply unselfconsciously to the exquisite playing of all six Mozart string quintets by the Alexander String Quartet in the company of violist Paul Yarbrough.…

The extensive liner notes by Eric Bromberger provide wonderful insights into the music. The engineering by Matt Carr, who also produced the album is sterling.

To sum up my thoughts: this is one of 2023’s best chamber music albums.”

—Rafael de Acha, All About the Arts

See the full review on All About The Arts

The Alexander String Quartet is thrilled to announce the continuation of a series of Mozart’s chamber music with Apotheosis, Vol. 3: Mozart – The String Quintets and ASQ’s founding violist Paul Yarbrough. This installment follows the 2018 and 2019 releases of the late string quartets and piano quartets (with Joyce Yang). Both recordings received critical acclaim (“These are by far, hands down and feet up, the most amazing performances of Mozart’s two piano quartets that have ever graced these ears.” –Fanfare).

Mozart composed his first string quintet at age 17 and his last in the year of his death, so it might seem that he wrote string quintets across the span of his career, but that is not the case. His first quintet was a foray into new territory for the young composer, and then Mozart set the form aside for fourteen years — his final five quintets were all created in the last four years of his life. As such, they represent some of his most sophisticated musical thinking. They offer wonderful music, exhilarating to hear (and to play!), sometimes very moving, and always very beautiful. In his quintets, Mozart did not set out to make the viola the star, but the addition of the extra viola offered him a broader canvas and unlocked new possibilities. His quintets generate a richer, fuller sound….and they offer increased opportunities to contrast different groupings of instruments and sonorities….(two of these quintets are among his longest chamber works, longer in fact than any of his symphonies).

Mozart Apotheosis, Volumes One and Two

Ms. Lee succeeds Fred Lifsitz, who retired from the group earlier this year. 

“The Alexander String Quartet could not be more excited to welcome Yuna Lee to the group. Yuna is a wonderful musician and a truly delightful human being,” said David Samuel, violist. “As a Bay Area local, she also shares a deep connection with the region and will be a huge asset as we endeavor to grow our work in the community. We know that audiences are going to love her playing as much as we do, and we look forward to many concerts and other adventures together for years to come!” 

“I am thrilled and honored to be joining the Alexander String Quartet,” said Ms. Lee. “I look forward to continuing the work of the ensemble’s remarkable legacy and seeing where our shared passion leads as we embark on our 43rd season.” 

About Yuna Lee

Yuna Lee has made San Francisco her home since 2010, performing and touring with the San Francisco Symphony as well as presenting chamber music concerts all over the Bay Area. Prior to her move to California, Ms. Lee played with the Saint Louis Symphony and served as Concertmaster at the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, FL where she also appeared as a soloist. In addition, she has performed as a member of The Knights Chamber Orchestra in New York City.

Ms. Lee co-founded the Phaedrus String Quartet in 1999 along with violinist Ilya Gringolts and as a member of that ensemble, she performed internationally at high-profile concerts including the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, La Jolla SummerFest, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, and alongside Nicolas Angelich, Yuri Bashmet, and Joshua Bell at the Verbier Festival.

Ms. Lee received her early musical training at New England Conservatory in Boston with Bo Hwang where she served as Concertmaster of both the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra and Tanglewood Young Artist’s Orchestra. She went on to pursue her B.M. and M.M. at the Juilliard School in New York where her principal teachers were Cho-Liang Lin and Naoko Tanaka. She has studied chamber music with members of the Guarneri, Emerson, Juilliard, and Tokyo String Quartets.

About Alexander String Quartet

The Alexander String Quartet stands among the world’s premier ensembles, having performed in the major music capitals of five continents. The quartet is a vital artistic presence in its home base of San Francisco, serving since 1989 as Ensemble in Residence of San Francisco Performances. Widely admired for its interpretations of Beethoven, Mozart, and Shostakovich, the quartet’s recordings have won international critical acclaim. Founded in New York City in 1981, the ensemble quickly captured attention, initially winning the Concert Artists Guild Competition in 1982, and then becoming the first American quartet to win the London (now Wigmore) International String Quartet Competition in 1985. The members of the Alexander String Quartet are recipients of honorary degrees from Allegheny College and St. Lawrence University, and Presidential medals from Baruch College (CUNY).

Since its inception, the Alexander String Quartet has maintained an unyielding and passionate commitment to education. For decades, the ensemble has trained generations of gifted performers, emerging string quartets, and talented young musicians destined to pass on their knowledge and love of music as teachers in schools across the globe. The 2023-24 season marks the beginning of a new initiative that brings together the quartet’s expertise in education and devotion to its community. Partnering with schools, arts organizations, and community institutions in the Bay Area and beyond, the Alexander String Quartet will be hosting a series of innovative workshops, performances and collaborations that are designed to support and bolster chamber music awareness and education for individuals from all walks of life.

The Alexander String Quartet has performed at Lincoln Center, the 92nd Street Y, the Metropolitan Museum, Jordan Hall, the Library of Congress, and appeared as guests at universities including Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Lewis & Clark, UCLA, and many more. Numerous overseas tours include the U.K., the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, France, Greece, the Republic of Georgia, Argentina, Panamá, and the Philippines. Their visit to Poland’s Beethoven Easter Festival is beautifully captured in the 2017 award-winning documentary, Con Moto: The Alexander String Quartet.

Joyce Yang, Marc-André Hamelin, Richard Stoltzman, Joyce DiDonato, Midori, Lynn Harrell, Branford Marsalis, David Sánchez, Jake Heggie, Augusta Read Thomas, Tarik O’Regan, Wayne Peterson, and Samuel Carl Adams are only a few of the many distinguished instrumentalists, singers, and composers with whom the Alexander String Quartet has collaborated in performance and recording projects crossing genres from classical to jazz, rock, and folk in its more than four decades of music making. Their most recent collaborative project, “British Invasion,” brings the Quartet together with guitarist William Kanengiser to explore the music of Sting, Led Zeppelin, John Dowland, and the Beatles by way of contemporary composers Ian Krouse, Dušan Bogdanović, and Leo Brouwer. The quartet continues to enjoy a long-standing collaboration with the richly entertaining composer-lecturer, Robert Greenberg, with whom it presents series of concerts every season with San Francisco Performances and at the Mondavi Center at the University of California in Davis. These concerts provide a deep dive into the history and essence of the works being presented in addition to a full performance of each piece.

Recording for the Foghorn Classics label, the Alexander String Quartet’s extensive recording catalogue includes complete string quartet cycles by Bartók, Beethoven, Brahms, Kodály, and Shostakovich. Their most recent release is the third installment of a Mozart chamber music project, “Apotheosis Volume 3,” featuring the string quintets of Mozart with violist Paul Yarbrough. Apotheosis Volumes 1 & 2, released in 2018 and 2019, featured the late string quartets and piano quartets (with Joyce Yang) of Mozart. Both recordings received critical acclaim (“These are by far, hands down and feet up, the most amazing performances of Mozart’s two piano quartets that have ever graced these ears.” –Fanfare). Other major recordings include the 2020 release of the Mozart and Brahms clarinet quintets (with Eli Eban) and the 2019 release, “Locale,” featuring Dvořák’s “American” quartet and piano quintet (with Joyce Yang). Their recording catalogue also includes the Mahler Song Cycles in transcriptions for mezzo-soprano (with Kindra Scharich) and string quartet by the Quartet’s first violinist, Zakarias Grafilo.

The Alexander String Quartet performs on Michael Fischer and unlabeled circa 1800 Italian violins, a Hiroshi Iizuka viola, and a Francis M. Kuttner cello. They have also had the distinct honor on numerous occasions to record and perform on a matched set of instruments known as the Ellen M. Egger Quartet, made in San Francisco by the late Francis M. Kuttner.

Zakarias Grafilo, violin
Yuna Lee, violin
David Samuel, viola
Sandy Wilson, cello 

As we struggle to wrap our heads around this abrupt parting, we are thinking of Francis’s wonderful and close family, as well as his many friends and colleagues worldwide. Strings magazine’s David Lusterman has posted a lovely remembrance of Francis:

“Violin maker Francis Kuttner, builder of the acclaimed Ellen M. Egger quartet of instruments and dear friend to scores, no—make that hundreds—of colleagues in the music world, passed away in his sleep early in the morning of Saturday, June 3, 2023 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he had been living for nearly two years while receiving treatment at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Born in Washington, DC, on March 2, 1951, Kuttner attended schools there and in New Haven, Connecticut, before studying art history at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. He built his first instrument, a dulcimer, while attending Antioch and pivoted briefly to guitar making before attending the Scuola Internazionale di Liuteria in Cremona, Italy, and devoting himself to violin making.

After working privately with Cremonese violin maker Francesco Bissolotti, Kuttner established his workshop in 1978 in San Francisco, joining a community of young builders that grew to include David Gusset, Stephen Lohmann, Sigrun Seifert, Joseph Grubaugh, Carla Shapreau, Jay Ifshin, Boyd Poulsen, and Roland Feller, many of whom rose to prominence as makers, restorers, and dealers.

Kuttner soon earned numerous gold and silver medals for his violins, violas, and cellos in international competitions in New York, Ottawa, Cremona, Manchester, and Paris. He later served as resident luthier at many European chamber music festivals and as a judge for international violin making competitions in Mittenwald, Paris, and Cremona.…

—David Lusterman

Continue reading on StringsMagazine.com

See a guestblog from Francis about listening to the Egger Quartet

British Invasion

The Alexander String Quartet and guitarist William Kanengiser form a dynamic collaboration that explores the music of Sting, Led Zeppelin, John Dowland and The Beatles by way of contemporary composers Ian Krouse, Dušan Bogdanović and Leo Brouwer.

In this project, William Kanengiser and the Alexander String Quartet pay tribute to a group of English musicians who conquered the musical world with their revolutionary explorations. From the Elizabethan lutenist John Dowland to the pop/rock icons Sting, The Beatles and Led Zeppelin, these artists made a lasting impact far from the shores of their small island. Their music served as inspiration for a set of compositions for guitar and string quartet by the talented composers Ian Krouse, Dušan Bogdanović and Léo Brouwer. It is especially appropriate that the guitar sits squarely at the center of these works, as the plucked string was the primary musical voice of these British innovators.

William Kanengiser

WILLIAM KANENGISER has forged a career that expands the possibilities of the classical guitar. A prize winner in major competitions (1987 Concert Artists Guild International Competition, Toronto Guitar ’81), he has toured throughout North America, Asia, and Europe with his innovative programs and expressive musicianship. An active proponent of new music and prolific arranger, he created the original production, The Ingenious Don Quixote. Founding member of the Grammy-winning Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, he has given hundreds of recitals and concerto appearances around the world, and has recorded over a dozen releases.

The Alexander String Quartet

THE ALEXANDER STRING QUARTET has performed in the major music capitals of five continents and is a major artistic presence in its home base of San Francisco, serving as Directors of The Morrison Chamber Music Center Instructional Programs, as well as Ensemble-in-Residence of San Francisco Performances and the Mondavi Center (UC Davis, CA). Important advocates of new music, they have commissioned or premiered over 35 new works. On the Foghorn Classics label, they have released 23 CDs (comprising 37 discs). ASQ is the subject of the award-winning documentary, Con Moto: The Alexander String Quartet (2017).

“The joy of this quartet’s playing is immediately apparent in the ferocious opening movement of the C minor quartet: they play with all the verve, drive and passion you could wish for but never at the expense of homogeneity or intonation – and the sustained warmth and depth of their string tone are a constant delight. … Balances, too are always cunningly contrived – kudos to the sound engineers here – and rather than summoning the presence of Beethoven, ever looming over Brahms’ shoulder, there is something about the pathos of their playing which constantly recalls Schubert’s desperate striving for beauty in the face of heartbreak. … The three quartets each themselves inhabit very different worlds and the Alexander Quartet evinces the chameleon properties required to embrace each discrete ambience effectively. This is mature, relaxed Brahms, secure in his métier as the successor to his musical antecedents, and exudes a kind of rustic playfulness which anticipates Mahler… This is quartet playing of the highest order; just listen to the way the concluding F major chord glows. The finale is based upon six variations, not a form which always prompts excited anticipation in my breast, but Brahms’ wit and invention carry the day.… This newer recording will be welcomed by the legion devotees of the Alexander String Quartet as testimony to their supremacy as dedicated musicians and consummate communicators.”

—Ralph Moore, MusicWeb International

See the full review at musicweb-international.com

Listen to the Album