Amphion String Quartet to Open The New School's Schneider Concerts Series, 10/12

The engaging young Amphion String Quartet, winner of the 2012 Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition, will open The New School of Music's Schneider Concerts Series on Sunday afternoon, October 12th, 2014 at 2:00 p.m. at The New School's Auditorium, 66 W 12th St., New York, NY. The concert will include works by Barber, Carter, and Dvorak.

Tickets are $17.50, $15 for seniors and $5 for standby student tickets and can be purchased on the web at www.newschool.edu or by calling 212-229-5873.

Hailed for its "gripping intensity" and "suspenseful and virtuoso playing" (San Francisco Classical Voice), the Amphion String Quartet is a winner of the 2011 Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition and joined the roster of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center's CMS Two Program in fall 2013. Through LCCMS, the ensemble made its Alice Tully Hall debut in March 2014, about which The New York Times praised "the focused, forceful young Amphion String Quartet" for its "sharply detailed performances."

The 2014-15 season begins with the ASQ's Mostly Mozart debut with two pre-concert recitals at Avery Fisher Hall and a return to Korea for the Busan Chamber Music Festival. The quartet has several return engagements in New York in 14-15, including two LCCMS performances at Alice Tully Hall, Bargemusic and the Tilles Center Chamber Music Series on Long Island. Collaborative performances include a recital with clarinetist David Shifrin at Rockford's Coronado Theatre and a special program with the renowned dance company BodyVox in Portland, OR entitled "Cosmosis," (which will also be available for touring in 2015-16). In fall 2014, the ASQ's first CD will be released by the UK-based label Nimbus, including quartets by Grieg, Janacek and Wolf.

Internationally, the Amphion Quartet has performed previously in South Korea at the Music Isle Festival in Jeju and at the Seoul Arts Center. Previous US festival appearances include The Chautauqua Institution, OK Mozart, Chamber Music Northwest, La Jolla Music Society's SummerFest, New Jersey's Mostly Music Series, NYU String Quartet Workshop, Princeton Summer Concerts, Cooperstown Chamber Music Festival and Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival. Summer 2014 featured the world premiere of a new quartet by Yevgeniy Sharlat at the Caramoor Music Festival (commissioned by Caramoor as the culmination of the 2012-13 Stiefel String Quartet residency). The ASQ has collaborated with such eminent artists as the Tokyo String Quartet, Ani Kavafian, David Shifrin, Carter Brey, Edgar Meyer, Michala Petri, James Dunham and Deborah Hoffmann.

Recent featured concerts include the Amphion Quartet's Carnegie Hall debut at Weill Recital Hall on the CAG series with guest David Shifrin, and also Zankel Hall; the Library of Congress and the Phillips Collection in Washington DC; Caramoor Center for the Arts; Pepperdine University; TCAN Center for the Arts (MA); New York's Me Museum and National Arts Club;, and a tour of Northern California with concerts at UC San Francisco, Eureka Chamber Music Series and Montalvo Center for the Arts. The ASQ has been showcased on New York's WQXR radio frequently, including the station's November 2012 Beethoven String Quartet Marathon, playing two quartets live in The Greene Space, with live webcast and subsequent airing on the radio.

Violinists Katie Hyun and David Southorn, violist, Wei-Yang Andy Lin, and cellist, Mihai Marica, first joined together for a performance at Sprague Hall at the Yale School of Music in February, 2009. The overwhelmingly positive audience response was the inspiration behind their mutual desire to pursue a career as the Amphion String Quartet. Recent honors include the 2012 Salon de Virtuosi Career Grant in New York; First Prize at the Hugo Kauder String Quartet Competition in New Haven, CT; and First Prize in the Piano and Strings category as well as the Audience Choice Award at the 2010 Plowman Chamber Music Competition held in Columbia, MO.