Dover String Quartet to perform first two concerts in Slee/Beethoven cycle

The award-winning Dover String Quartet, recently dubbed “the young American string quartet of the moment” by The New Yorker, will perform the first two concerts in this season’s Slee/Beethoven String Quartet Cycle on Sept. 29 and 30.

Both concerts, presented by the Department of Music, will take place at 7:30 p.m. in Lippes Concert Hall in Slee Hall, North Campus.

The first program on Sept. 29 includes Beethoven’s Op. 127, Op. 18 No. 1 and Op. 59 No. 3. The Sept. 30 program features Op. 74, Op. 18 No. 2, and Op. 131.

Tickets are $15 for the general public and $10 for UB faculty/staff/alumni, seniors, and non-UB students. UB students are free with ID. Tickets may be purchased in advance in person at the Center for the Arts box office, online at www.tickets.com and one hour before concert time at the Slee box office.

The Dover Quartet, formed in 2008 and based in Philadelphia, serves as the faculty quartet-in-residence at Northwestern University's Bienen School of Music and has performed at such prestigious venues as the Kennedy Center and Wigmore Hall.

The quartet catapulted to international stardom following a stunning sweep of the 2013 Banff International String Quartet Competition, becoming one of the most in-demand ensembles in the world. The Strad, a publication for the string music world, raved that the quartet is “already pulling away from their peers with their exceptional interpretive maturity, tonal refinement and taut ensemble.” 

In 2013-14, the quartet was the first ever quartet-in-residence for the venerated Curtis Institute of Music.

In addition to winning the Grand Prize and all three Special Prizes at the 2013 Banff competition, the Dover Quartet has received other prestigious awards, among them the 2015 Cleveland Quartet Award and the 2016 Hunt Family Award, one of the inaugural Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Awards.

In its early years, the quartet also won grand prize at the Fischoff Competition, and special prizes at the Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition.

This season, the quartet expects to release its debut recording, featuring three works by Mozart: his two final string quartets and the Quintet in C minor.