Audubon Quartet Performance Seminars
Professional String Quartets can be born of a variety of sources:  four students grouped together for a competition; members of the same orchestra; university or conservatory string faculty; or simply four gifted performing artists, who have a deep and abiding passion for the repertoire and a desire to refine the art of string quartet performance.   The latter category constituted the first members of the original Audubon Quartet in 1974, all “orchestral refugees” who dreamed of the more artistically fulfilling and intimate communal life that playing in a quartet provides.

As the ensemble became established in the world of chamber music and began to operate under the aegis of academic residencies, part of its function was to provide instrumental and musical instruction to students.  It was therefore natural that we should expand our teaching to provide coaching and support to fledgling musical ensembles.  Thus, began the Audubon Quartet Seminars.  

The first performance seminar offered by the Audubon Quartet was held at the Summer Music Festival in Mt. Gretna, Pennsylvania in 1986, and was repeated in the same location the following year.

The events were considered such a success that in 1994 the we decided to relocate them to Virginia Tech (VPI) in Blacksburg, Virginia, where the Quartet was in residence. The Audubon Quartet seminars became annual events, occurring in the late spring after the end of the school year and before the beginning of the majority of summer music festivals.  This arrangement enabled gifted string students from well-known music schools and conservatories to receive an intense immersion in the string quartet repertoire before heading off to summer music programs such as Aspen in Colorado, Kneisel Hall in Maine, Sarasota in Florida, or Marlboro in Vermont.

The alumni list includes some well-known performers today, including members of current and formerly active professional string quartets and chamber music ensembles.

Selected participants of previous Audubon Quartet Seminars:

Carlos Rubio, violin (Dali Quartet, US)
Frank Shaw, viola, (A Far Cry Chamber Ensemble, US)
Jae Lee, violin (A Far Cry Chamber Ensemble, US)
Jameson Cooper, violin /Luis Vargas, viola (Euclid Quartet, US)
Jeremiah Shaw, cello (Telegraph Quartet, US)
Joshua Roman, cello (International Concert/Recording Artist)
Lara St. John, violin International Concert/Recording Artist)
Leslie Tan, viola/Lionel Tan, cello (T’ang Quartet, Singapore)
Nicole Cherry, violin (Marian Anderson Quartet, US)
Nicole Johnson, cello (Cassatt Quartet, US)
Rebecca Fischer, violin/Jonah Sirota, viola (Chiara Quartet, US)
Wayne Lee, violin (Formosa Quartet, US)