The Dover Quartet’s upcoming season features a number of exciting performances. This past season, Dover made its Vanguard Concerts debut to critical acclaim.
“Dover Quartet is the String Quartet of Our Generation”
- The Violin Channel
A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and the Rice University Shepherd School of Music, the Dover Quartet is a former top prize winner at the Fischoff, Wigmore Hall and Banff International String Quartet Competitions — and a recent recipient of the prestigious Cleveland Quartet Award, the Lincoln Center Hunt Family Prize and an Avery Fisher Career Grant. Comprising violinists Joel Link and Bryan Lee, violist Milena Pajaro-Van de Stadt, and cellist Camden Shaw, the quartet was recently dubbed by the New Yorker as “the young American string quartet of the moment.”
The ensemble performs more than 100 concerts internationally each year, and the Quartet was recently nominated for a 2021 Grammy Award for recording The Schumann Quartets on the Azica label. Dover most recently recorded the Beethoven Complete String Quartets with Cedille Records, released in 3 volumes, and volume 1 – The Opus 18 Quartets and Volume 2 – The Middle Quartets are currently available. Dover has also recently recorded an album of Encores with Brooklyn Classical.
JOEL
Biggest business lesson you’ve learnt so far in your career?
It pays to be kind and treat people well along the way. You never know who will be in a place to be there for you in the future, and, even more importantly, everyone is human and deserves to be treated with kindness and respect.
5 things you love about your ensemble
1) I love the playing of each of my colleagues and am always inspired by their fearless and gutsy styles. 2) We strive for extreme vulnerability and trust in concerts especially. Easy to take for granted after many years! 3) We all LOVE food 4) We all LOVE nature 5) We are all nerds about fitness/health on the road and go about it so differently!
What would be your ensemble’s dream gig?
I’ve always wanted to organize a tour to perform in places that rarely (if ever) experience classical music/chamber music. Having the opportunity to share the string quartet repertoire with people for the very first time is always an extremely special and personal experience.
What would you say makes your ensemble unique?
For me, we all began the quartet with a similar sound in mind, as well as a similar way of making music. I feel that traditionally, quartets have gotten started much later than we did, and often that means forming with wonderful players who come from many different places and traditions. I think our shared viewpoint helped us find something cohesive quite quickly!
MILENA
Biggest business lesson you’ve learnt so far in your career?
Can the value of a good night’s sleep be considered a business lesson? ;) We learned the hard way through many years of being spread too thin!
5 things you love about your ensemble
—We don’t hide our inner voices! —It’s easy to find a restaurant on the road because we will all try pretty much anything.
What would be your ensemble’s dream gig?
I imagine one “dream gig” would be for us to all go back in time and do an octet tour with our mentors the Guarneri Quartet!
