Lee University is pleased to welcome the Escher String Quartet for the next installment of the 2021-22 Presidential Concert Series. The performance will take place on Thursday, Feb. 3, at 7:30 p.m. in t he Squires Recital Hall.

The Escher String Quartet, based in New York City, has been praised for its “eloquent, full-blooded playing” (BBC Music Magazine) and “…a level of individual technical precision and a collective musical purpose that is endlessly compelling (The Strad). The quartet has played in the most prestigious concert halls around the world and recently became one of the few chamber artists to be awarded the Avery Fisher Career Grant.

In New York, the ensemble serves as Season Artists of The Chamber Music Society (CMS) of Lincoln Center, where it has presented the complete Zemlinsky Quartets Cycle as well as being one of five quartets chosen to collaborate in a complete presentation of Beethoven’s string quartets. Last season, the quartet toured with CMS to China.

The current season features a European tour, including debuts at Musik und Kunstfreunde Heidelberg, de Singel Antwerp, Budapest’s kamara.hu festival and Bath Mozarfest. Alongside its growing success in Europe, the Escher Quartet continues to flourish in the U.S., performing at Alice Tully Hall in New York, Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., Chamber Music San Francisco, and the Ravinia, Caramoor, and Music@Menlo festivals.

In fall 2016, the quartet released the third and final volume of the complete Mendelssohn Quartets on the BIS label. The set has been received with the highest critical acclaim; Volume II was listed in the Top 1 0 CDs of 2016 by the Guardian and hailed for its “sheer finesse” by Gramophone, while Volume III was nominated for a BBC Music Magazine Award.

Tickets for the Presidential Concert are $15 for adults, $5 for children and seniors, and are available for purchase at https://leeu-music.eventbrite.com or at the Lee University Box Office in the Dixon Center, (423) 614-8343, beginning Jan. 27, be tween 3-6 p.m.

Lee University remains dedicated to the health and safety of both the campus community and guests and will observe COVID-19 protocols based on CDC recommendations at the time of the performance.

For more information about the Escher String Quartet, visit escherquartet.com.

For more information about the Presidential Concert Series, visit leeuniversity.edu/pcs/ or call the School of Music at (423) 614-8240.