Blueprinting

Aizuri Quartet's debut album Blueprinting features new works written for the quartet by five amazing American composers. Though the works on the album traverse a wide emotional and stylistic terrain, there is a unifying sense of wonder, joy and infectious energy in the music. Most importantly, these works were all born out of a close collaboration between the quartet and the composers. Through long rehearsals, workshops, performances, and tours, these pieces have become companions and friends of the quartet, a central and personal part of their repertoire. Praised by the Washington Post for "captivating" performances that draw from it's notable "meld of intellect, technique and emotions," the Aizuri Quartet was awarded the Grand Prize at the 2018 M Prize Chamber Arts Competition, First Prize at the 2017 Osaka International Chamber Music Competition in Japan, and Third Prize at the 2015 Wigmore Hall International Chamber Music Competition in London. Through it's engaging and thought-provoking programs, the Quartet has garnered critical acclaim for bringing "a technical bravado and emotional power" to bold new commissions, and for it's "flawless" (San Diego Union-Tribune) performances of the great masterpieces of the past in which "every note is lovingly crafted and savored" (Washington Post). Based in New York City, the Aizuri Quartet was the 2017-2018 MetLiveArts String Quartet-in-Residence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, presenting five unique programs throughout the season, which the New York Times called "genuinely exciting" and "imaginative." Previously the Quartet was the 2015-2016 Ernst Stiefel String Quartet-in-Residence at the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, and from 2014-2016, the String Quartet-in-Residence at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.