The Orion String Quartet: Biographies

Daniel Phillips
Todd Phillips
Steven Tenenbom
Timothy Eddy

The Orion String Quartet is one of the most sought-after ensembles in the United States. Since its inception, the Orion String Quartet has been consistently praised for the fresh perspective and individuality it brings to performances, offering diverse programs that juxtapose classic works of the standard quartet literature with masterworks by living composers. They remain on the cutting edge of programming with their wide-ranging commissions from composers Chick Corea, Alexander Goehr, John Harbison, Leon Kirchner, Marc Neikrug, Peter Lieberson and Wynton Marsalis, and enjoy a creative partnership with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. With over fifty performances a year, the members of the Orion String Quartet - violinists Daniel Phillips and Todd Phillips (brothers who share the first violin chair equally), violist Steven Tenenbom and cellist Timothy Eddy - have worked closely with such legendary figures as Pablo Casals, Rudolf Serkin, Isaac Stern, Pinchas Zukerman, Yo-Yo Ma, Peter Serkin, András Schiff, members of TASHI and the Beaux Arts Trio, as well as the Budapest, Végh, Galimir and Guarneri String Quartets. The Orion serves as Quartet-in-Residence at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and New York's Mannes College of Music and is the Resident Quartet at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music. "A noisy standing ovation is nothing rare, and these players certainly deserved theirs after the stellar performance. But silence can be an even better indicator of a powerful performance. (A)fter the Adagio in the Mendelssohn, the musicians managed to seduce the rustling, coughing, whispering audience into utterly silent awe." The New York Times, 2007

During the 2008-2009 season, the Orion performs the complete Beethoven quartets in London as part of the inaugural season of King's Place, the first performance hall to be built in London in almost 30 years. Other overseas engagements include appearances in Norway, Taiwan and Korea. In North America, the Orion appears with clarinetist David Krakauer at Penn State University and in Boston, and with violist Kim Kashkashian and cellist Marcy Rosen in Philadelphia. The Quartet also gives four performances as part of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center's season in New York, including the inaugural re-opening of Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall. Other recitals are slated for upstate New York, Kentucky, Massachussets, and Providence, RI. The Orion began the 2008-2009 season with visits to the Risor (Norway) Music Festival, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, and Chamber Music Northwest in Portland, Oregon.

The Orion Quartet recently celebrated its 20th anniversary with a season that included a critically acclaimed reprise of their debut at the 92nd Street "Y," and two world premieres, Lowell Liebermann's fourth string quartet and David Del Tredici's Magyar Madness, commissioned for the Orion Quartet and clarinetist David Krakauer by Music Accord. In addition, the Orion collaborated with Leon Fleischer at Ravinia and Ida Kavafian and David Soyer in Philadelphia. The Quartet finished its anniversary season in New York with a sold-out, all-Beethoven program at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.

The Orion has achieved an enviable reputation for its interpretations of Beethoven's string quartets, and has recently recorded the complete quartets for KOCH International Classics. The Middle and Late volumes were released over the past year and received high praise from critics. The Strad called the Orion's performances "powerfully persuasive," BBC Music Magazine called the first volume "richly rewarding," and Strings called the late quartets, "thoughtful, deeply felt, meticulously executed performances." The final installment of the complete Beethoven quartets is slated for release in early 2009. Outside of the recording studio, the ensemble first performed the entire cycle for the innovative Beethoven 2000 series of free concerts at Alice Tully Hall in May 2000, with additional outreach activities in four boroughs of New York City. Presented in conjunction with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Beethoven 2000 supported six New York community arts organizations in honor of their contribution to children's education. The Quartet has subsequently performed the complete Beethoven cycle in Kansas City, Pittsburgh, Deerfield (MA), Indiana University in Bloomington, Santa Fe, and San Juan, PR. A critically lauded, five-concert performance cycle in Pittsburgh took place over a period of only three days. The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review said, "The ensemble's performances had the seemingly infinite attention to detail - from the voicing of a chord to the nuance of a phrase - that results from their long and loving exploration of Beethoven's quartets."

The Quartet's recordings reflect its musical diversity. In addition to the final volume of the Beethoven quartets, releases this season include Leon Kirchner's complete string quartets on Albany Records. Past recordings include Wynton Marsalis's first classical composition for strings, At the Octoroon Balls (String Quartet No. 1) for Sony Classical, Dvorák's "American" String Quartet and Piano Quintet with Peter Serkin and Mendelssohn's Octet with the Guarneri String Quartet, both on Arabesque.

The members of the Quartet maintain a strong dedication to the next generation of musical artists and serve on the faculties of the Mannes College of Music, Curtis Institute of Music, Juilliard School, Queens College, Rutgers University and the Bard College Conservatory of Music where they teach private lessons, give chamber music classes and offer intensive coaching programs for young professional string quartets. They have also served as faculty members of the Isaac Stern Chamber Music Workshop at Carnegie Hall and the Summer Institute for Advanced Quartet Studies in Aspen. Since 1993, the Quartet has maintained a summer residency at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival that included a three-year project of commissioned quartets by Danish composer Per Nørgård, John Harbison and Chick Corea. The Quartet also premiered Marc Neikrug's piano quintet as part of the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival which was subsequently recorded with Corea's The Adventures of Hippocrates and John Harbison's Quartet No. 4 released on Koch Records in 2006.

Heard on National Public Radio's Performance Today, the Orion has also appeared on PBS's Live from Lincoln Center, A&E's Breakfast with the Arts, and three times on ABC-TV's Good Morning America. In October 2004, they participated in the first WNYC Radio collaboration with BBC World Service's popular syndicated program, Music Party. This special performance heard in New York and over 40 countries worldwide features works by Haydn, Beethoven, Ravel, Bartók, Chick Corea and Wynton Marsalis. Additionally, the Quartet was photographed with Drew Barrymore by Annie Leibovitz for the April 2005 issue of Vogue.

The Orion String Quartet gained immediate attention in the classical music world when its founding members, each with distinguished solo and chamber music careers, officially formed the ensemble in 1987. The Quartet chose its name from the Orion constellation as a metaphor for the unique personality each musician brings to the group in its collective pursuit of the highest musical ideals.