Welcome

“a fresh and vital young participant in what is a golden age of American string quartets” -The New Yorker

Praised by The New Yorker as “a fresh and vital young participant in what is a golden age of American string quartets,” the Daedalus Quartet has established itself as a leader among the new generation of string ensembles. Since winning the top prize in the Banff International String Quartet Competition, they have performed in many of the world’s leading musical venues including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Library of Congress, the Gardner Museum, and abroad at Vienna's Musikverein, the Salzburg Mozarteum, the Concertgebouw, the Cité de la Musique in Paris, as well as in leading venues in Japan.

The Daedalus Quartet has won plaudits for its adventurous exploration of contemporary music including commissions of Fred Lerdahl’s Third String Quartet and Chaconne, Joan Tower’s White Water, Huck Hodge’s The Topography of Desire, David Horne’s Flight from the Labyrinth, and Vivian Fung's Frenetic Memories.

Since 2006, the Daedalus Quartet has served as Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Pennsylvania where they are recognized for their innovative programming and interdisciplinary collaborations, particularly in their Beethoven Quartet cycle, Music and Migration, Hearing Women's Voices and Bartok’s Monster projects.

Biography

Recordings

  • There are many composers who intertwine eclectic influences into one coherent picture, but few people do it as ambitiously and convincingly as New York City based composer Debra Kaye.

    IKARUS AMONG THE STARS (Navona Records)

    Music of Debra Kaye
    Released May 6, 2023

    Navona Records
  • Daedalus Quartet records Lerdahl's fourth string quartet "Chaconne" from 2016

    Fred Lerdahl Volume Six (Bridge Records)

    Daedalus Quartet records Lerdahl's fourth string quartet "Chaconne" from 2016
    Released February 7, 2020

    Bridge Records
  • From the River Flow the Stars is a book of short compositions based around ancient Japanese poetry. The character of these pieces seeks to discover enlightenment from loss and salvation in solitude.

    FROM THE RIVER FLOW THE STARS (MSR Classics)

    String Quartets by Brian Buch
    Released February 24, 2018

    MSR Classics
  • Widely regarded as one of America’s pre-eminent living composers, Joan Tower, who is also a pianist, is particularly devoted to chamber music.

    Joan Tower: String Quartet no. 5, "White Water" (Naxos)

    The Daedalus Quartet plays Tower's 5th quartet, "White Water" and "Dumbarton Quintet."
    Released April 2, 2016

    Naxos
  • The four pieces recorded here comprise Volume 1 of the Daedalus Quartet's survey of George Perle's music for string quartet.

    George Perle: String Quartets (Brigde Records)

    Released June 25, 2013

    Bridge Records
  • This is the first recording of Fred Lerdahl's complete cycle of three string quartets, which he wrote between 1978 and 2008.

    Music of Fred Lerdahl (Bridge Records)

    String quartets nos. 1, 2, and 3
    Released May 22, 2012

    Bridge Records
  • This special two-disc set features Haydn's six revolutionary Op. 20 "Sun" quartets. These quartets, composed in 1722, were among the most influential quartets of this era.

    Haydn String Quartets, Op. 20 "Sun" (Bridge Records)

    This special two-disc set features Haydn's six revolutionary Op. 20 "Sun" quartets
    Released October 2, 2010

    Bridge Records
  • This album brings together the second, third, and fourth quartets from Lawrence Dillon's Invisible Cities String Quartet Cycle, a set of six string quartets Dillon has been working on since 1998.

    Insects and Paper Airplanes (Bridge Records)

    Chamber Music of Lawrence Dillon
    Released October 1, 2010

    Bridge Records
  • Award-winning Daedalus Quartet's Debut Recording, featuring works by Sibelius, Stravinsky, and Ravel

    Debut CD (Bridge Records)

    Sibelius, Stravinsky, and Ravel
    Released August 1, 2006

    Bridge Records

Acclaim

  • "The Daedalus underscored the [Debussy quartet's] formal elegance with impeccable balance and articulation, while also emphasizing its elusive passion and wit through imaginative management of phrasing and dynamics."

    The New York Times

  • "Among the most impressive young quartets on the international scene."

    San Jose Mercury-News

  • "One of the finest chamber ensembles around."

    The New York Sun

  • "Any doubts about those resources were put to rest by a hair-raising rendition of Shostakovich's Third Quartet. ... Many groups excel at this music's expressive extremes, but the Daedalus also did a fine job tracing moments of ambiguity, in which certain instrumental lines or dance figures hover in a strange, multivalent netherworld somewhere far beyond tragedy and farce."

    The Boston Globe

  • "Insightful and vibrant."

    The New York Times

  • "One of the finest young groups to emerge in our current golden age of string quartets."

    The New Yorker

  • "String Quartets as philosophically like-minded as the Daedalus don't come along very often... In Haydn's String Quartet in F Major, Opus 77, No. 2. III:82, each member bent the tempos of short interloping figures so subtly you could only marvel at the finesse."

    The Philadelphia Inquirer

  • "Imaginative and energetic."

    The New York Times

  • "Seamless and deeply satisfying. ... Unflagging enthusiasm and depth."

    The Buffalo News

Upcoming Concerts

For booking inquiries, please contact

Katherine H. Womer Benjamin
Arts 28, Founder & Managing Director

PO Box 973
Kings Park, NY 11754
khwb@artstwentyeight.com
617-448-0007

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