Brentano String Quartet

Since its inception in 1992, the Brentano String Quartet has appeared throughout the world to popular and critical acclaim. "Passionate, uninhibited and spellbinding," raves the London Independent; the New York Times extols its "luxuriously warm sound [and] yearning lyricism"; the Philadelphia Inquirer praises its "seemingly infallible instincts for finding the center of gravity in every phrase and musical gesture"; and the Times (London) opines, "the Brentanos are a magnificent string quartet...This was wonderful, selfless music-making." Within a few years of its formation, the Quartet won many awards, including the first Cleveland Quartet Award and the Naumburg Chamber Music Award.

In recent years, the Quartet has traveled widely, appearing all over the U.S. and Canada, in Europe, Japan and Australia and has performed in the world's most prestigious venues, including: Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall in New York, the Library of Congress in Washington, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and the Sydney Opera House.

In addition to performing the entire two-century range of the standard quartet repertoire, the Brentano Quartet has a strong interest in both very old and very new music and has performed many musical works pre-dating the string quartet as a medium.

The Quartet is named for Antonie Brentano, whom many scholars consider to be Beethoven's "Immortal Beloved", the intended recipient of his famous love confession.