The Orion String Quartet: Biographies

Program Biography

Daniel Phillips
Todd Phillips
Steven Tenenbom
Timothy Eddy

FULL BIOGRAPHY

The Orion String Quartet is one of the most sought-after ensembles in the United States. Since its inception, the 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, David Del Tredici, Alexander Goehr, John Harbison, Leon Kirchner, Marc Neikrug, Lowell Libermann, Peter Lieberson and Wynton Marsalis, and enjoy a creative partnership with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. With over fifty performances each 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, Peter Serkin, members of TASHI and the Beaux Arts Trio, as well as the Budapest, Végh, Galimir and Guarneri String Quartets. The Orion serves as Artist Members of Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and Quartet-in-Residence at New York's Mannes College 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. After the Adagio in the Mendelssohn, the musicians managed to seduce the rustling, coughing, whispering audience into utterly silent awe." The New York Times.

Following numerous summer performances at the Chamber Music Northwest, Music @ Menlo and Santa Fe Chamber Music Festivals the Orion String Quartet begins a robust 2011-2012 season. Fall and spring performances presented by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center feature complementary selections of quartets by Haydn and Mozart and quintets by Weber, Neikrug and Mozart with the estimable clarinetist David Shifrin. In November the Orion returns to Washington DC's Kennedy Center and collaborates once again with Mr. Shifrin in Jordan Hall as part of the Celebrity Series of Boston. Additional season highlights include two performances of Bach's Art of the Fugue as a special full-evening work with the quintet Windscape, a concert with violist Ida Kavafian presented by the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society and three programs of Brahms' quartets and quintets as part the 35-concert series, Brahms Unwrapped, at Kings Place in London. The Orion are also presented in concerts by South Mountain Concerts, Syracuse Friends of Chamber Music, Mercer University, Pittsburgh Chamber Music Society, People's Symphony Concerts and Montgomery Chamber Music.

The ensemble has achieved an enviable reputation for its interpretations of Beethoven's string quartets, and has recorded the complete quartets for KOCH International Classics. All three volumes have been periodically released over the last three years and have 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." 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. Most recently the ensemble is heard on a 2010 Bridge Records release of various Peter Lieberson works, featuring the premiere recording of the composer's Piano Quintet with Peter Serkin. In addition to the complete Beethoven quartets, the Orion released Leon Kirchner's complete string quartets on Albany Records, of which Gramophone Magazine acclaimed, "The Orion Quartet plays each score as if inhabiting its unique expressive world. The playing is at turns fierce, exquisite and detailed. It would be difficult to imagine Kirchner's music treated with more loving attention to the introspective and arching aspects of this composer's compelling art." The Kirchner recording was also named a 2008 Top 10 Classical Recording by The Chicago Tribune and highlighted in The New York Times' Holiday Gift Guide. 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, The 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 and premiered Marc Neikrug's piano quintet as part of the Festival which was subsequently recorded with Corea's The Adventures of Hippocrates and John Harbison's Quartet No. 4 for KOCH 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. 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.