The St. Lawrence String Quartet has announced that the 2023/24 season, their 34th, will be their last. The news comes after a year the quartet spent on hiatus following the death of founding violinist Geoff Nuttall.
Remaining members Lesley Robertson, Christopher Costanza and Owen Dalby will continue to make their musical home at Stanford University, where the SLSQ has served as quartet-in-residence since 1998. They will continue to perform and teach, as well as direct the university’s chamber music program, and other activities.
The St. Lawrence Quartet
The SLSQ was founded at Toronto’s Royal Conservatory of Music in 1989, with members Geoff Nutall, along with violinist Barry Shiffman, violist Lesley Robertson, and cellist Marina Hoover. In 1992, they won first prize at the Banff International String Quartet Competition. They followed up with several other prizes and awards, including a JUNO.
While personnel changes may have been made, their reputation for innovation and dynamic interpretation only continued to grow. Along with their residency at Stanford, the quartet has held residencies at the Juilliard School, Yale University, and the University of Toronto.
Among their notable specialties was a commitment to new music, as well as a special relationship with the music of Haydn. In fact, a recent concert featured the six quartets of Opus 20 performed over a single afternoon.
In a 2017 review, John Terauds writes, “One of the hallmarks of the Canadian-born, Stanford University-based St Lawrence String Quartet is that they always approach their interpretations with passion. It has made for many electric live performances and recordings over their now-27-year career.”
The SLSQ leaves a legacy of recordings, including several award-winning albums: Schumann String Quartets, Tchaikovsky String Quartets, “Yiddishbbuk” by Osvaldo Golijov (on EMI), and Haydn Op. 76 and Korngold’s Piano Quintet (on Phenotypic Recordings), among others.
In a statement, Lesley Robertson, Christopher Costanza and Owen Dalby remarked, “We have had the adventure of our lives. We can’t imagine a more gratifying, challenging, inspiring, exasperating, deeply joyful, heartbreaking, life-affirming experience than this joint effort over so many years. We are profoundly grateful to have had the opportunity to explore the magic kingdom of the string quartet repertoire together – and for the deep friendships, beautiful discoveries and transformative life lessons learned along the way”.
We wish the trio all the best in their future endeavours.
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Anya Wassenberg is a Toronto City Editor at Ludwig Van. She is an experienced freelance writer, blogger and writing instructor.
