VC Artist Ulysses Quartet Welcomes New Violist

Peter Dudek will join the ensemble, effective immediately

VC Artist Ulysses Quartet, with violinists Christina Bouey and Rhiannon Banerdt and cellist Grace Ho, announced that violist Peter Dudek will join the ensemble, replacing Colin Brookes.

“We are thrilled to welcome Peter, who is one of the most exciting up-and-coming musical talents today," the founding quartet members said. "We greatly appreciate his versatility in performance, brilliant virtuosity, infectious enthusiasm, and rich soulful music-making. We also bid farewell to violist Colin Brookes with gratitude for his artistry and vision as a founding member of our quartet, with fond wishes for his continued success."

A first prize winner at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, Discover National Chamber Music Competition, and WDAV Young Chamber Musicians Competition, Dudek has appeared alongside renowned artists such as Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, and Roger Tapping. He has performed at the Verbier in Switzerland, Keshet Eilon in Israel, the NAC Young Artists Program in Canada, and the Perlman Music Program in New York.

A graduate of the University of Michigan and The Juilliard School, where he studied with Roger Tapping, Toby Appel, Molly Carr, and Yizhak Schotten, Dudek currently serves as a teaching assistant in music theory at The Juilliard School. In addition to running a private studio for violin and viola instruction, he regularly teaches music theory to students in Nairobi, Kenya, through Project: Music Heals Us.

Founded in 2015, the Ulysses Quartet won the grand prize and gold medal in the senior string division of the 2016 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and first prize in the 2018 Schoenfeld International String Competition. In 2017, the quartet finished first in the American Prize and won the Vietnam International Music Competition in 2019. Ulysses recently released their debut album, “Shades of Romani Folklore,” on the Navona label.