AVALON STRING QUARTET
Blaise Magniere, Violin
Marie Wang, Violin
Che-Yen Chen, Viola
Sumire Kudo, Cello
Hailed as "one of the most exciting young string quartets in America" by the Washington Post, the Avalon String Quartet has established itself as one of the country's leading chamber ensembles and has earned international acclaim for the bold musicality and passionate intensity of its performances.
Formed in 1995 at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, the Quartet's numerous honors include top prize at the 2000 International Music Competition of the ARD in Germany, First Prize, the Channel Classics Prize, and the Rockport Chamber Music Festival Prize at the 1999 Concert Artists Guild Competition, and the Grand Prize at the 1998 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition. The ensemble has also won awards the 1998 Banff International String Quartet Competition and the 1999 Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition. In 1997, the Quartet participated in Isaac Stern's Chamber Music Workshop at Carnegie Hall. As a result, Mr. Stern invited the Avalon Quartet to perform in the Isaac Stern Chamber Music Encounters in Jerusalem and in March 2000 presented the ensemble's Carnegie Hall debut at Weill Recital Hall. The Quartet made its New York debut on the Alexander Schneider Series at the New School in 1998.
In the 2002-2003 season, the ensemble served its second year as Resident Quartet at The Juilliard School. The Avalon Quartet has been in residence at the Hartt School of Music where the ensemble worked extensively with the Emerson Quartet, and previously held a similar residency with the Vermeer Quartet at Northern Illinois University. The Avalons have served as quartet in residence for the 2001 Texas Christian University/Van Cliburn Piano Institute, and in the 1999-2000 season, the ensemble served as the first Ernst Stiefel Foundation String Quartet in Residence at the Caramoor International Music Festival Center for Music and Art. The members of the Quartet have worked with major artists including Henry Meyer, Jaime Laredo, Leon Fleischer, Peter Wiley, Gilbert Kalish, and Michael Tree, and members of the Orion, Cleveland, La Salle, Juilliard, and Tokyo string quartets.
The Quartet has performed throughout the United States and has given concerts for the Lively Arts Series at Stanford University, the La Jolla Chamber Music Society, the Savannah Onstage International Music Festival, the Brooklyn Friends of Chamber Music, the Pittsburgh Chamber Music Society, Alice Tully Hall for the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the 92nd Street Y, the Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College, Merkin Concert Hall, Dame Myra Hess Series in Chicago, Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Series, the Chicago Chamber Music Society, the Cleveland Museum of Art Concert Series, Ravinia Rising Stars Series, the M.I.T. Concert Series in Cambridge, MA and the Alexander Schneider Series at the New School.