First Prize Winners of the 5th Banff International String Quartet Competition (1995), Gold Medallists at the Tokyo International Music Competition (1992), Grand Prize Winners of the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition and First Prize Winners of the Chamber Music Yellow Springs Competition, the Amernet String Quartet has garnered worldwide praise and recognition as one of today's exceptional young string quartets. The Amernet rose to international attention after only one year of existence, after winning the acclaimed Tokyo International Music Competition in 1992. This award brought with it major appearances in concert halls in Tokyo and Osaka, Japan. Three years later, the group was the first prize winner of Canada's premiere string quartet competition, the Banff International String Quartet Competition. This high-profile award brought the quartet a highly acclaimed tour of eastern Canada's major cities: Toronto, Montreal, and Ottawa among others.

Their busy performance schedule has also taken the group all across the United States and also to Germany, France, Switzerland, Korea and Australia. The Amernet's New York debut was at Merkin Hall in 1994, with a return engagement in 1995. The Strad labeled the debut "a vital, free-wheeling performance." Subsequent New York performances include Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall in 1996 and 1998, the Americas Society in 1998, and Alice Tully Hall in 1997 and 1998.

The Amernet String Quartet is a recipient of a 1995 Chamber Music Rural Residency Award and has received numerous grants for their unique concert and conversation series and school outreach projects. Additionally, in the 1997-98 season the quartet conducted residencies in Buffalo NY, Memphis TN, Erie PA, and Logan Utah, as well as performing concerts at the Eastman School, Harvard Musical Association, Kravis Center, Ravinia's "Rising Star Series", the Library of Congress and others.

Among the major musical centers in the U.S., they have appeared in concert in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington DC, New Orleans, Los Angeles and at numerous festivals, including Mostly Mozart, Newport, Rockport, Music at Gretna, Great Lakes, and Tanglewood.

The Amernet String Quartet maintains a connection with today's composers, and has worked closely with such composers as John Corigliano, David Epstein, Stephen Dankner, Morton Subotnick and Gerhard Samuel. Their most recent commission, in conjunction with the LaSalle Foundation, is a quartet by renowned Japanese composer Toshi Ichiyanagi, to be premiered in the 1998-99 season.

The group has recorded the Concerto for Clarinet, Oboe, String Quartet and Bass by John Harbison with Sara Lambert Bloom and Charles Neidich as soloists, The Butterflies Began to Sing work for String Quartet, Bass, MIDI keyboard and computer, by Morton Subotnick and a complete CD of quartets by American composer Stephen Dankner. The Amernet's latest discography includes a recording of the Debussy String Quartet and the Chausson Concerto for Piano, Violin and String Quartet with pianist James Tocco and violinist Yehonatan Berick.

The quartet enjoys collaborating with other artists to make music in a variety of combinations. Their collaborations have included such artists as the Tokyo Quartet, the St. Lawrence Quartet, Anton Kuerti, Sandra Rivers, Jeremy Denk, Ruth Laredo, Kyung Wha Chung, Miriam Fried, Toby Hoffman, Paul Biss, Nathaniel Rosen, Shauna Rolston, Lee Fiser, Paul Katz, Dame Gillian Weir and James Vandemark among others.

The quartet formed while two of its members were students at Juilliard, under the guidance of Joel Smirnoff of the Juilliard Quartet. With the inspiration of their late teacher Joseph Fuchs, the quartet was founded in 1991 and took the name "Amernet" (pronounced ammer-nay). The Amernet was the first established quartet to be admitted into the graduate program leading to the Artist Diploma in Chamber Music at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and became the first quartet of the Eminent Scholar Program. At CCM they studied intensively for three years with both the LaSalle Quartet and the Tokyo Quartet. Additional studies were summers spent at Aspen with the Emerson Quartet, Earl Carlyss, and Koichiro Harada (former first violin of the Tokyo Quartet), the Steans Institute with Walter Levin, and the Norfolk Festival, where they did an intensive seminar with the Tokyo Quartet on the Quartets of Bartok. The Amernet also performed at Tanglewood with Juilliard Quartet members, Eugene Lehner, and Louis Krasner, and attended the Isaac Stem Seminar at Carnegie Hall with Isaac Stem, Guarneri Quartet members, Leon Fleischer, Claude Frank, and David Zinman among others.

Hailed as a "fresh, energetic quartet" by the Chicago Sun Times and as "fascinating with flawless intonation, incredible beauty of sound, virtuosic brilliance and homogeneity of ensemble" by the Nürnberger Nachrichten (Germany), the Amernet String Quartet is Ensemble in Residence at the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music, where they currently coach chamber music and have a three-concert series each season.

Highlights of the 1998-99 season include performances with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra of the Handel (trans. Schoenberg) Concerto Grosso, Op. 6 No. 7for String Quartet and Orchestra, on Lincoln Center's Great Performers Series, British Virgin Islands, and Washington DC, among others.

Residency

Please contact Baylin Artists for a full description of the following activities.

Lecture/Demonstrations

The Quartet offers lecture/demonstrations for a variety of age groups - from children to adults.

Masterclasses

Members of the Quartet listen to ensembles and/or soloists perform, collectively coach an ensemble or individual, offer observations and critique.

Open Rehearsals

These may include special dress rehearsals before the concert, in which the Quartet will both play and address questions presented by the audience. These may also include a

rehearsal to take place at a school or university where students can have the opportunity to learn about ensemble rehearsal technique.

Sample Repertoire

Haydn
String Quartet in G Major Op. 77 No. 1

Schubert
String Quartet in A minor Op. 29 D804 "Rosamunde"

Ravel
String Quartet in F Major

Beethoven
String Quartet in C minor Op. 18 No. 4

Bartòk
String Quartet No. 3

Brahms
String Quartet in A minor, Op. 51, No. 2

Corigliano
Quartet

Sample Repertoire
with Guest Artists

Beethoven
Elegischer Gesang "Sanft wie du lebtest,"
Op. 118 "Elegy"
Amernet String Quartet & Choir

Mozart
Oboe Quartet in F Major, K 370

Mozart
Clarinet Quintet in A Major, K 581

Faure
La Bonne Chansonne for String Quartet
and Voice

Martinu
Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra

Commissions

Mike Reid
Untitled
The Amernet String Quartet will be paired with chamber choir of twelve to twenty voices in a piece by Grammy and Richard Rodgers Award winning composer Mike Reid. The composition will use texts from American poets, possibly Wallace Stevens and William Carlos Williams. Presenters will have the option of inviting a local narrator to recite additional works by poets represented prior to the performance. The work is to be composed in 1999 and ready for touring in the 2000-2001 season by the Amernet Quartet. The world premiere will take place in May 2000 in Cincinnati. The new work will be paired with Beethoven’s Elegy, Opus 118, which is also scored for string quartet and chamber choir. A chamber choir will be selected from the community where the Amernet will be performing.

Toshi Ichiyanagi
Untitled
This Japanese composer is writing a piece which will be premiered in Cincinnati. The Amernet/LaSalle Foundation has commissioned the piece, and it will be available in the 2000-2001 season.

Discography

New World:
Morton Subotnick:
And the Butterflies Begin to Sing (1997)

Gasparo:
The Great Lakes
Chamber Music Festival (1998)
_____ Chausson: Concerto in D
_____ Debussy: Quartet in g minor