Winner, Astral Artists’ 2010 National Auditions
Winner of the prestigious 2012 Cleveland Quartet Award, the Jasper String Quartet has been hailed as “sonically delightful and expressively compelling” (The Strad) and “powerful” (The New York Times). The Classical Voice of North Carolina says they play “with sparkling vitality and great verve…polished, engaged, and in tune with one another.” Based in New Haven, Connecticut, the Jasper Quartet enjoys appointments as the 2010-2012 quartet-in-residence at Oberlin Conservatory and ensemble-in-residence at Classic Chamber Concerts in Naples, Florida. Their debut album, The Kernis Project: Beethoven, was released in 2011 on the Sono Luminus label, and their second disc, The Kernis Project: Schubert, will be released in May 2012.
After winning the Grand Prize and the Audience Prize in the 2008 Plowman Chamber Music Competition, the Jaspers went on to win the Grand Prize at the 2008 Coleman Competition, First Prize at Chamber Music Yellow Springs 2008, and the Silver Medal at both the 2008 and 2009 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition. They were the first ensemble to win the Yale School of Music’s Horatio Parker Memorial Prize (2009), an award established in 1945 and selected by the faculty for “best fulfilling…lofty musical ideals.” The Jasper String Quartet was a winner of Astral Artists’ 2010 National Auditions, and gave their Philadelphia recital debut on Astral’s series in 2010. They will be featured on Astral’s 2012-2013 concert series, performing the Mendelssohn Octet with the Jupiter String Quartet.
The Jaspers perform pieces emotionally significant to its members, ranging from Haydn and Beethoven to Berg, Ligeti, and living composers. They have commissioned four string quartets from today’s up-and-coming composers, and critics and audiences continue to commend their “programming savvy” (clevelandclassical.com). The Jaspers have performed throughout the United States and in Canada, England, Italy, Japan, Korea, Norway, and Panama.
The Jasper Quartet has brought well over 100 outreach programs into schools and enjoys educational work of all kinds. During their Melba and Orville Roleffson Residency at the Banff Centre, the Jaspers embarked on a “guerilla chamber music” project, performing concerts in unusual settings around Alberta, Canada. More recently, the quartet has worked closely with the Caramoor Center for Music and Arts and with Astral Artists to bring outreach activities to schools, and recently completed the 2009-2011 Ernst C. Stiefel String Quartet Residency at Caramoor.
Formed at Oberlin Conservatory, the Jasper Quartet began pursuing its professional career in 2006 while studying with James Dunham, Norman Fischer, and Kenneth Goldsmith, as Rice University’s graduate quartet-in-residence. In 2008, the quartet continued its training with the Tokyo String Quartet, as Yale University’s graduate quartet-in-residence.
The Jasper String Quartet is named after Jasper National Park in Alberta, Canada, and J and Rachel are married.
Updated: MAY 2012
