Biography
2009-2010 Season
Adam Barnett-Hart (Violin); Wu Jie (Violin);
Pierre Lapointe (Viola); Dane Johansen (Cello)
The Escher String Quartet has received acclaim for its individual sound and unique cohesiveness. The quartet has performed at prestigious venues and festivals across the United States, including Lincoln Center, 92nd Street Y and Symphony Space in New York, Boston's Gardner Museum, The Louvre in Paris, Dallas Chamber Music Society, Fortas Series at the Kennedy Center, New Orleans Friends of Music and Orange County Performing Arts Center, as well as the Ravinia and Caramoor Festivals, Music@Menlo and La Jolla SummerFest. The Escher Quartet has served for the past three years as resident ensemble of Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s “CMS Two” program. The group has collaborated with such eminent artists as Andrés Diaz, Lawrence Dutton, Kurt Elling, Leon Fleisher, Lynn Harrell, Wu Han, Jeffrey Kahane, Joseph Kalichstein, Pepe Romero, pop folk singer-songwriter Luke Temple, David Shifrin, and Pinchas Zukerman. Within months of its inception in 2005, the Escher was invited by both Pinchas Zukerman and Itzhak Perlman to be quartet-in-residence at each artist's summer festival.
In June 2009 the Escher debuts at the Bargemusic Festival in New York and continues the season with concerts at Colorado University, the University of Wyoming, and the Sanibel Music Festival. As part of the Chamber Music Society’s International String Quartet Series, the Escher performs in Lincoln Center’s recently renovated Alice Tully Hall.
Last season the Escher debuted at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC, the Louvre in Paris, as well as in New Orleans, Orange County, CA, and San Jose. The Escher performed at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Music@Menlo and the Gold Coast Festival. The Escher has served as the Ernst Stiefel String Quartet-in-Residence in Caramoor – where they performed their first commissioned work by Pierre Jalbert – and in 2007 joined the faculty of Stony Brook University as Visiting Artist-in-Residence in a unique relationship with the world-renowned Emerson String Quartet.
The ensemble takes its name from Dutch graphic artist M.C. Escher and draws inspiration from the artist’s method of interplay between individual components working together to form a whole.
"The individual and sometimes concertolike playing of the four musicians was notable for its polish and tonal beauty."-The New York Times