About the Quartet

Weigang Li, violin
Yi-Wen Jiang, violin
Honggang Li, viola
Nicholas Tzavaras, cello

“The whole performance was superb.” - The New York Times

Renowned for its passionate musicality, impressive technique and multicultural innovations, the Shanghai Quartet has become one of the world's foremost chamber ensembles. Its elegant style melds the delicacy of Eastern music with the emotional breadth of Western repertoire, allowing it to traverse musical genres from traditional Chinese folk music and masterpieces of Western music to cutting-edge contemporary works.

Formed at the Shanghai Conservatory in 1983, the Shanghai Quartet has worked with the world's most distinguished artists and regularly tours the major music centers of Europe, North America and Asia. Recent performances have ranged from the International Music Festivals of Seoul and Beijing to the Festival Pablo Casals in France, Terra Magica Festival in Croatia, Yerevan Festival in Armenia and Cartagena International Music Festival in Colombia, as well as numerous concerts in all regions of North America. The Quartet has appeared at Carnegie Hall in chamber performances and with orchestra, and in 2006 gave the premiere of Takuma Itoh's Concerto for Quartet and Orchestra in Carnegie Hall's Isaac Stern Auditorium. Among innumerable collaborations with noted artists, they have performed with the Tokyo, Juilliard and Guarneri Quartets, Yo-Yo Ma, Lynn Harrell, Menahem Pressler, Peter Serkin, Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Chanticleer.

The Shanghai Quartet's 25th anniversary season in 2008-9 included appearances at the Ravinia, Tanglewood and Ottawa International Festivals, New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, as well as residencies at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival and the Oregon Bach Festival. The anniversary featured world premieres from the three continents that comprise its artistic and cultural worlds: Penderecki's String Quartet No. 3: Leaves From an Unwritten Diary, Chen Yi's From the Path of Beauty, jazz pianist Dick Hyman's String Quartet, and String Quartet No. 2 by Vivian Fung. The Penderecki String Quartet premiered in November 2008 at a special concert in Poland honoring the composer's 75th birthday, followed by U.S. Premieres at Montclair State University and the Modlin Center, University of Richmond and numerous subsequent performances. Chen Yi's From the Path of Beauty, commissioned with Chanticleer, was premiered in San Francisco, Dick Hyman's work at the Modlin Center, and Vivian Fung's at the Smithsonian Institution's Freer Gallery of Art, where the Shanghai Quartet has appeared annually for many years.

The Quartet has a long history of championing new music and juxtaposing Eastern and Western sounds. Important commissions and premieres include works by Lowell Lieberman, Sebastian Currier, Bright Sheng and Zhou Long. The tradition continues with the premiere of Lei Liang's Five Seasons for String Quartet and Pipa with Wu Man this fall, and forthcoming works from Marc Neikrug and Bright Sheng.

The Shanghai Quartet has an extensive discography of more than 25 recordings. Releases range from Schumann and Dvorak piano quintets with Rudolf Buchbinder to Zhou Long's Poems from Tang for string quartet and orchestra with the Singapore Symphony (BIS). Delos released the Quartet's most popular disc, Chinasong, in 2003. The collection of Chinese folk songs features music arranged by Yi-Wen Jiang and reflects his childhood memories of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. The Shanghai Quartet recorded the complete Beethoven String Quartets for Camerata, a seven-disc project that was completed in 2009.

The Shanghai Quartet has participated in a diverse and interesting array of media projects, from a cameo appearance playing Bartok's String Quartet No. 4 in Woody Allen's film "Melinda and Melinda" to PBS television's Great Performances series. Violinist Weigang Li appeared in the documentary "From Mao to Mozart: Isaac Stern in China," and the family of cellist Nicholas Tzavaras was the subject of the 1999 film "Music of the Heart," starring Meryl Streep.

The Shanghai Quartet currently serves as Quartet-in-Residence at Montclair State University in New Jersey, Ensemble-in-Residence with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, and visiting guest professors of the Shanghai Conservatory and the Central Conservatory in Beijing.