FINALE

At its inception, the Audubon Quartet began using the traditional string quartet arrangement that consisted of designated first and second violinists, a violist and a cellist.  Traditions such as that in England referred to the 1^st violinist as the “leader”, and historically we see that many European quartets took the name of their first violinist as the name of the quartet e.g., the Kolisch Quartet, Busch Quartet, Griller Quartet, and Kneisel Quartet.  During the 20^th Century it became increasingly fashionable to name quartets for institutions, instrument makers, famous people and places, e.g., the Juilliard Quartet, the Guarneri Quartet, and the Audubon Quartet.

Some quartets in the 1970s altered the traditional mold by switching the roles of the two violinists so that each had the opportunity and responsibility to lead the ensemble’s performance. The Emerson Quartet comes to mind.  Not only does this model provide each violinist with the experience of playing a leading role in the ensemble, but also allows both violinists the opportunity to explore the importance of the 2^nd violin part as a middle voice.

The last iteration of the Audubon Quartet  followed suit in its final decade and made the decision to have the two violinists alternate their roles in the Quartet, often concert to concert, taking turns playing the same pieces. 

There are many reasons – not taken up in this particular narrative – why the Audubon Quartet made the decision to conclude its performance activities after the 2011 season.    At that time, the Quartet consisted of me, Doris Lederer, Akemi Takayama and Ellen Jewett.  I was one of the founders of the Audubon Quartet in 1974.  Doris joined soon after in 1976, with Akemi becoming a member 2 decades later.  Ellen, an old colleague and friend, was invited to join the Quartet in 2000. The members of that particular ensemble were, and continue to be, colleagues and friends to this day.

In 2018, I retired from my full professorship at Shenandoah Conservatory in Winchester, Virginia, where violinist Akemi Takayama and violist Doris Lederer continue to serve as Instrumental Professors.  Ellen Jewett moved to Turkey to build a performing career there and live with her Turkish husband.

The final decade of the Quartet was in many ways the happiest.  This is not to say that the earlier decades of the Quartet’s ground-breaking career did not bring us enormous pride of accomplishment – and joy to many thousands of audience members around the world.

I am happy to conclude this archive of the career of the Audubon Quartet with a gallery of images of its final international tour and a recording of the final concert, which took place at the Chautauqua Institution in New York on August 8, 2011