The Manhattan String Quartet

The Prairie School Summer Chamber Music Conference Faculty
Eric Lewis, violin Chris Finckel, cello John Dexter, viola Calvin Wiersma, Violin	Critically acclaimed as one of America’s leading ensembles, the Manhattan String Quartet is celebrating its 39th season this year. Michael Steinberg of the Boston Globe hailed them as “a national treasure.” Notable among its many recordings is the complete cycle of 15 Shostakovich string quartets which TIME Magazine called “One of the most important musical events of 1991”. The group has been Quartet-in-Residence at Colgate University for the past seventeen years, and has also held similar posts at the Manhattan School of Music, Cornell University, Grinnell College, Western Connecticut State University, the Chamber Music Institute in Racine, Wisconsin and Michigan’s Interlochen National Music Camp (for 21 summers). The Quartet appears regularly in the musical capitals of Europe including Paris, Prague, Budapest, Leipzig and Vienna. In 2005, they presented the Shostakovich quartet cycle in Nagoya and Tokyo, Japan in addition to performances in the United States including New York City. Since 1981 the Manhattan String Quartet has hosted annual teaching and performing conferences, in the United States and Europe, for young professional quartets and amateur string players.

David Clampitt	The author of numerous publications in the field of music theory, DAVID CLAMPITT has taught at the University of Chicago and held a Presidential Fellowship at SUNY Buffalo for 3 years. He was active as a violinist in chamber music and contemporary music ensembles while at SUNY and played frequently with the Buffalo Philharmonic. He was a founding member of the Algonquin String Quartet during his years in New York City. He has coached for a number of years at KentMusic and at the House Party in Wyoda in Fairlee, Vermont. For several years he was Chair of the Music Department at the Kent School. Mr. Clampitt is currently on the faculty of Yale University.