This remarkable quartet – hailed as “a triumph of ensemble playing” by The New York Times – is a multi-faceted ensemble taking chamber music in new directions.
Touring music of the masters as well as new works from visionary composers of our time, the Fry Street Quartet has perfected a “blend of technical precision and scorching spontaneity” (The Strad). Since winning the Grand Prize at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, the quartet has reached audiences from Carnegie Hall to London, and Sarajevo to Jerusalem, exploring the medium of the string quartet and its life-affirming potential with “profound understanding…depth of expression, and stunning technical astuteness” (Deseret Morning News).
With a discography that includes a wide range of works from Haydn and Beethoven to Stravinsky, Janacek and Rorem, the quartet is known for being “equally at home in the classic repertoire of Mozart and Beethoven or contemporary music.” (Palm Beach Daily News). Recordings include The Crossroads Project, released on Navona Records, featuring commissioned works by Laura Kaminsky and Libby Larsen, as well as Kaminsky’s lauded chamber opera As One, released on Albany Records. Canções da America, written for the FSQ by composer Clarice Assad, was released in video format by Chicago’s innovative Guarneri Hall in 2023.
The FSQ’s tour repertoire reaches many corners of the musical spectrum, including works of Britten, Schubert, Beethoven and Bartok alongside contemporary works. The complete quartets of Béla Bartók have been prominent in the quartet’s repertoire with complete cycles presented by the Salt Lake City-based NOVA series as well as in the Russell/Wanlass Performance Hall at Utah State University, featuring eminent Bartok scholar Peter Laki. The FSQ premiered Laura Kaminsky’s chamber opera As One with soprano Sasha Cooke and baritone Kelly Markgraf at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and has gone on to perform the work with Hawaii Opera Theater, Lyric Opera Kansas City, and Chautauqua Opera. The Fry Street Quartet continues to commission and perform new works by a wide range of composers. Pandemonium by Brazilian composer Clarice Assad received its Fry Street premiere with the San Jose Chamber Orchestra; Michael Ellison’s Fiddlin‘ was co-commissioned by the Arizona Friends of Chamber Music Series and the Salt Lake City based NOVA series; also commissioned by NOVA for the FSQ is a work for string quartet and electronics by composer Nicolás Lell Benavides, entitled Lek, which features the mating sounds and calls of the sage grouse and sharp-tailed grouse, and shines a light on this iconic western bird whose habitat is threatened. The upcoming season features a new string quartet commissioned and written for the FSQ by composer Gabriela Lena Frank. Both Laura Kaminsky’s Rising Tide and Libby Larsen’s Emergence were commissioned especially for the quartet’s global sustainability initiative, The Crossroads Project.
After more than 60 performances in three different countries, Rising Tide: The Crossroads Project continues to resonate with audiences. This fresh approach to communicating society’s sustainability challenges draws upon all the senses with a unique blend of science and art, and has been featured on NPR’s joe’s big idea (aired during All Things Considered), as well as in publications by Yale Climate Connections, Reuters, and the New York Times. After living closely with this project for more than a decade, the FSQ continues to spearhead initiatives to make a difference in the face of the Climate Crisis. Their Climate Commitment, writing on the topic, and working with the institutions and organizations they’re a part of to imagine and implement more sustainable practices all represent ongoing efforts.
The quartet’s touring history includes performances at major venues, festivals, and distinguished series including Carnegie Hall, the New School and Rockefeller University in New York, Guarneri Hall and the Jewel Box series in Chicago, Chamber Music Columbus, the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach, the Theosophical Society in London, the Mozart Gemeinde in Klagenfurt, Austria, and the Fujian Grand Theatre, Xiaoshan Grand Theatre and Shanghai Oriental Art Center in China. The quartet also enjoys a continuing residency with the Salt Lake City-based NOVA series, where they are currently serving as Music Directors.