“The Quartet seemed to be as totally enchanted by making music as they must have been as students. Their playing was crisp, the textures pristine and clear, the interpretations fresh and engaging, and the emotional impact intense and lasting.”
1974
American String Quartet founded by students at The Juilliard School
Winners of the Coleman Prize & the Naumburg Award
Aspen Music Festival residency begins
1975
New York debut, Alice Tully Hall
1976
Featured ensemble: Carnegie Hall/The Julliard School BiCentennial Concert Series
Mannes College of Music residency
1977
Featured on CBS’s Camera Three “Quartets” broadcast and "Happy Birthday Samuel Barber
1978
One of first NEA Concert/Workshop Tour Grant Winners
1979
First tour of Taiwan
1979-1998
Taos School of Music residency
1980
First European tour
1980-1990
Peabody Conservatory residency
1982
Featured on Steve Martin’s Best Show Ever, produced by NBC’s Saturday Night Live
1982-1985
Rice University Shepherd School of Music residency
1984
Manhattan School of Music residency begins
Complete Schoenberg Quartet Cycle for UCLA Schoenberg Institute 10th Anniversary
1988
Featured Ensemble in Hermann Prey’s Schubertiade at the 92nd Street Y, New York City
1989
Commission of George Tsontakis' Quartet No. 4 with a grant from Chamber Music America
1990
Violinist Peter Winograd joins the quartet
1991-1994
University of Nebraska Lied Center residency
1991
First tour of Japan
Complete Mozart Quintets with violist Michael Tree at Manhattan School of Music
1992-1997
Complete Recordings of Mozart String Quartets on set of matched Stradivarius instruments (MusicMasters 6 CD set)
1993
Second tour of Japan — Inaugural concerts for Yokahama’s Philia Hall
Quartet-in-Residence for Van Cliburn International Piano Competition
1994
Performance of Bartók’s Quartet No. 4 with New York City Ballet
Spohr Quartet Concerto Op. 131 & Ysaye "Harmonie du Soir" with Philadelphia Orchestra (Macal) at the Mann Ctr. & SPAC
1996-2002
“Cycles within Cycles,” Mozart Viola Quintets and Bartók Quartets at Orange County Performing Arts Center, Costa Mesa, California
1996
Featured to open season for the Montreal Symphony
1997-2000
Beethoven the Contemporary series for University of Michigan, Ann Arbor Musical Society. Complete Beethoven Cycle combined with major US contemporary works.
1997
Performers and adjudicators at the Evian Music Festival and Quartet Competition
1999
25th Anniversary — Tour of all 50 U.S. states
2005
First tour of China
Great Wall International Music Festival residency
2006
Cellist Wolfram Koessel joins the ASQ
2009
First tour of Israel, including Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa
First tour of South America (with guest artist Menahem Pressler, piano)
2010-2011
35th Anniversary — NSS Music releases CD Schubert’s Echo
Residency at Taipei National University (TNUA) in Taiwan
2014-2015
Complete cycle of Beethoven quartets in Tel Aviv (2014), again in Haifa (2015)
2015
Complete string quartets and quintets of Mendelssohn and Brahms at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art
2016
Debut and performances of "The Echantress of Florence" by Paul Cantelon together with Salman Rushdie.
Premiere of Robert Sirota's "American Pilgrimage" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
2017
Performances of "War and Healing" together with National Book Award winner Phil Klay and esteemed poet Tom Sleigh