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Staying power: US String Quartets

2025-07-04T08:51:00

Brooklyn Rider 1 cr Sarah Small

As Brooklyn Rider and the Jack and the Miró quartets mark milestone anniversaries, Thomas May looks at how these contemporary American ensembles are not just surviving, but reshaping the 21st-century musical landscape

Where quartet playing once embodied an unshakeable tradition, simply enduring has become a radical act. In a landscape where ensembles often form and disband with startling rapidity, milestone anniversaries for three US groups highlight a rare and increasingly endangered aspect of the musical ecosystem: sustained artistic vitality…

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