Established in 1989, the St. Lawrence String Quartet has developed an undisputed reputation as a truly world class chamber ensemble. The quartet performs over 120 concerts annually worldwide and calls Stanford University home, where the group is Ensemble in Residence. The SLSQ continues to build its reputation for imaginative and spontaneous music-making, through an energetic commitment to the great established quartet literature as well as the championing of new works by such composers as John Adams, Osvaldo Golijov, Eziquiel Vinao, and Jonathan Berger.

The SLSQ's recordings have been honored with the coveted German critics award, Canada’s Juno Award (for their release of Schumann’s 1st and 3rd quartets), and two Grammy nominations (for their landmark Yiddishbbuk CD). Watch this site for free live performance downloads and exciting new recording projects! >>read more

Articles

ST. LAWRENCE STRING QUARTET AWARDS AEOLUS QUARTET ITS 2012 JOHN LAD PRIZE

30Aug2012

The St. Lawrence String Quartet, Stanford’s Grammy-nominated resident ensemble, has awarded the Aeolus Quartet its 2012 John Lad Prize.  Presented in collaboration with Stanford Live and Vancouver's Music on Main series, the award includes invitations from both organizations to perform during the 2013-14 season.

Apply to the 2011 SLSQ Stanford Seminar!

03Feb2011

All info has been updated for 2011.

2011 SLSQ Stanford Seminar - June 24 to July 3

A 10-day intensive seminar for advanced students (over 18 years of age) and adult amateurs with the Grammy-nominated St. Lawrence String Quartet and Special Guest Faculty.

Click here for details and the application form.

Applications due March 1. Student groups can receive financial assistance!

Walk on the Wild Side, The Strad Magazine

01Aug2009

by Brian Wise

In 20 years, the Canadian-bred St. Lawrence Quartet has held strong its reputation for playing of high calibre and high jinks in equal measures. The St. Lawrence Quartet members got fed up with business as usual last year, and the circumstances of their new recording of Haydn and Dvorak shows why. During a meeting with EMI, their label since 1999, a representative said that the company had enough recordings of Haydn string quartets in its catalogue, and besides, Haydn doesn't sell. The players did more than just shrug off their dissatisfaction and move on. They did something about it.

»Download article

For quartet, change is a constant

16Nov2007

Source: Boston Globe

by David Weininger
Globe Correspondent

Geoff Nuttall, first violinist of the St. Lawrence String Quartet, had everything he needed when reached at his Philadelphia hotel room on Monday morning.

"I've got my coffee and I've got ESPN in the background," he said in a mellow, affable voice. Nuttall is a serious football fan, and having played an afternoon concert the day before, he'd missed most of the gridiron action, especially the matchup between the Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants. "They embed a chip in your brain when you grow up in Texas," he joked, explaining his Cowboys fandom.

New cellist sounds like he belongs

17Jan2004

Source: The Globe and Mail

by Robert Everett-Green

You're at a family gathering, and someone comes in with a new partner. The party goes on much as before, except that everyone has an ear cocked for that one new voice.It was like that at Toronto's Jane Mallett Theatre on Thursday, as the St. Lawrence String Quartet played a recital with its latest cellist, Christopher Costanza. It was almost a year to the day after the quartet arrived at the same venue on the arm of another new cellist, Alberto Parrini, who split with the group at the end of August.For the Music Toronto crowd that packed the house, the St. Lawrence is family.

Yiddishbbuk nominated for Juno Award

12Feb2003

Source: Juno Awards

SLSQ's Golijov disc nominated for Classical Album of the Year

The St. Lawrence String Quartet's Yiddishbbuk has been nominated for a Juno Award for the Classical Album of the Year (Solo or Chamber Ensemble)! Watch it live on April 6th. 

Party of four

24Jan2003

Source: Palo Alto Weekly

The St. Lawrence String Quartet adds a Grammy nomination to their impressive resume

by Robyn Israel

It's a chilly late November evening on the Stanford campus, and the St. Lawrence String Quartet is assembled in an upstairs lounge, located on the second floor of the Braun Music Center. The four members -- violinists Geoff Nuttall and Barry Shiffman, violist Lesley Robertson and cellist Alberto Parrini -- have just returned from a performance in Pittsburgh, and are getting ready to attend an on-campus recital given by their students.

PILOBOLUS TO PREMIERE NEW WORK WITH STRING QUARTET AT STANFORD

18Jan2003

Source: The Mercury News

Dance troupe re-energized by live music

By Anita Amirrezvani, Mercury News

As a founding member of Pilobolus, the modern dance group often compared to living sculpture, Michael Tracy is used to all the sweat, drama and passion of the rehearsal studio. Even so, when he talks about making his newest dance, he can't hide the excitement in his voice.

Yiddishbbuk nominated for two Grammy Awards

01Jan2003

Source: Grammy.com

EMI Music Canada has its first-ever classical and jazz Grammy nominations

from Grammy.com

In the long list of EMI/Virgin Grammy nominees announced today were three for classical and jazz discs from EMI Music Canada: Jane Bunnett's Alma de Santiago was nominated for Best Latin Jazz Album, while the St Lawrence String Quartet received two nominations for Yiddishbbuk - Best Chamber Music and Best Classical Contemporary Composition.

Field 27 - Classical
Category 98 - Best Chamber Music Performance
(Award to the Artists.)

Vibrant violin

02Jun2002

Source: The Star

With all that commotion, Nuttall of the St. Lawrence Quartet seems a little high strung

by WILLIAM W. STARR

The tradition of chamber music is stillness and decorum.

And then there's violinist Geoff Nuttall, a poster boy for the chronically mobile.

On stage, he's a flibbertigibbet, all arms and legs, motion, movement, up and down, side to side, breathing audibly. In some fast passages, he seems almost to levitate off his seat.