(SEWELL, NJ) -- Music at Bunker Hill opens its 16th season on Sunday, September 24, 2023 with a performance by Dover Quartet, including works by Haydn, Price, and Shostakovich. The performance takes place at Bunker Hill Presbyterian Church, 330 Greentree Road, Sewell, NJ. Showtime is 3:00pm.
Founded in 2008, the same year as Music at Bunker Hill, the Dover Quartet has been named one of the greatest string quartets of the last 100 years by BBC Music Magazine. Their performance at this intimate venue will give each listener an immersive experience, from the softest whisper to fortissimos that fill the room. The Dover Quartet appears by arrangement with the Curtis Institute of Music, where it serves as the Penelope P. Watkins Ensemble in Residence.
Tickets are $12 for students with ID and $28 for adults and seniors. Tickets are available for purchase online.
Hailed as “the next Guarneri Quartet” (Chicago Tribune) and named one of the greatest string quartets of the last 100 years by BBC Music Magazine, the GRAMMY-nominated ensemble has followed a “practically meteoric” (Strings) trajectory to become one of the most in-demand chamber ensembles in the world. In addition to its faculty role as the Penelope P. Watkins Ensemble in Residence at the Curtis Institute of Music, the Dover Quartet holds residencies with the Kennedy Center, Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University, Artosphere, and the Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival. The group’s awards include a stunning sweep of all prizes at the 2013 Banff International String Quartet Competition, grand and first prizes at the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition, and prizes at the Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition. Its prestigious honors include the Avery Fisher Career Grant, Chamber Music America’s Cleveland Quartet Award, and Lincoln Center’s Hunt Family Award.
The Dover Quartet’s 2022–23 season includes collaborations with Edgar Meyer, Joseph Conyers, and Haochen Zhang. The group tours Europe twice, including a return to London’s renowned Wigmore Hall and a debut performance in Copenhagen. The quartet recently premiered Steven Mackey’s theatrical-musical work Memoir alongside arx duo and actor-narrator Natalie Christa. Other recent and upcoming artist collaborations include Emanuel Ax, Inon Barnaton, Ray Chen, the Escher String Quartet, Bridget Kibbey, Anthony McGill, the Pavel Haas Quartet, Roomful of Teeth, the late Peter Serkin, and Davóne Tines. In addition to two previous albums for the label, Cedille Records released the third volume of the Dover Quartet’s Beethoven Complete String Quartets recording in October 2022. Volume 2–The Middle Quartets was nominated for a GRAMMY Award in 2022, and the quartet’s recording of The Schumann Quartets for Azica Records was nominated for a GRAMMY Award in 2020. The Dover Quartet was formed in 2008 at the Curtis Institute of Music.
The members of the Dover Quartet studied at the Curtis Institute of Music, Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, and New England Conservatory, where they were mentored extensively by Shmuel Ashkenasi, Victor Danchenko, Joseph DePasquale, James Dunham, Norman Fischer, Kenneth Goldsmith, Kim Kashkashian, Joseph Silverstein, Arnold Steinhardt, Michael Tree, Donald Weilerstein, and Peter Wiley. The Dover Quartet was formed at the Curtis Institute of Music, and its name pays tribute to Dover Beach by fellow Curtis alumnus Samuel Barber.
Founded in 2008, Music at Bunker Hill brings great performers to the heart of southern New Jersey, enhancing the cultural life of our community by preserving the tradition of classical music while exploring other musical genres. With outreach concerts in schools and libraries, our artists inspire the next generation with their passion for the arts and standards of excellence. Their goal is to make great music affordable, accessible, and appealing to as many people as possible.
This program is made possible by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts and the Gloucester County Cultural and Heritage Commission.
Joel Link is a violinist with the Dover Quartet, the Penelope P. Watkins Ensemble in Residence at the Curtis Institute of Music. Mr. Link is an active soloist and chamber musician; and has been a top prize winner of numerous competitions including the Johansen International Competition in Washington, D.C. and the Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition in England, for which he was featured in The Strad magazine. Mr. Link has appeared on numerous radio shows, including NPR’s From the Top.
A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, Mr. Link studied with renowned violinists Joseph Silverstein and Pamela Frank, and served as the Curtis Symphony Orchestra’s concertmaster for the 2009–10 season. He has attended music festivals across the globe, including the Ravinia Festival, the Marlboro Music Festival, and Music from Angel Fire. As a member of the Dover Quartet, Mr. Link won first prize and every special award at the Banff International String Quartet Competition in 2013 and the gold medal and grand prize in the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition in 2010; and performs over 100 concerts around the world annually.
Mr. Link plays a very fine Peter Guarneri of Mantua violin kindly loaned to him by Irene R. Miller through the Beare’s International Violin Society.
Mr. Link joined the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music in 2020. He also teaches at Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music.
Bryan Lee is a violinist with the Dover Quartet, the Penelope P. Watkins Ensemble in Residence at the Curtis Institute of Music. Mr. Lee has performed as a soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Delaware, Lansdowne, and Temple University symphony orchestras, among others. He was awarded the bronze medal at the 2005 Stulberg International String Competition and won second prize at the 2004 Kingsville Young Performers Competition. He has been featured on NPR’s From the Topand has attended Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute, La Jolla Music Society’s Summerfest, Music from Angel Fire, Encore School for Strings, Sarasota Music Festival, Music Academy of the West, and the Perlman Music Program.
Mr. Lee has served as associate concertmaster of Symphony in C and the Curtis Symphony Orchestra and as a substitute for the Philadelphia Orchestra. Mr. Lee is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music where he studied with Pamela Frank and Victor Danchenko. His previous studies were with Choong-Jin Chang and Soovin Kim. He performs on a 1904 Riccardo Antoniazzi.
Mr. Lee joined the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music in 2020. He also teaches at Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music.
Julianne Lee joins the Dover Quartet, the Penelope P. Watkins Ensemble in Residence at the Curtis Institute of Music, as its violist in September 2023. She has forged a remarkable career as both a violinist and violist, frequently appearing as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral player. She holds the position of assistant principal second violinist at the Boston Symphony Orchestra and has been a member of the BSO violin section since 2006, serving as acting assistant concertmaster from 2013 to 2015. From 2017 to 2019, she was also the principal second violinist of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.
Ms. Lee has toured nationally and internationally with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Marlboro Music Festival, and the Australian Chamber Orchestra, where she held the title of guest principal violist. She also served as the second violinist of the Johannes String Quartet, an ensemble that performed commissioned works by Esa-Pekka Salonen, Derek Bermel, and William Bolcom. Throughout her illustrious career, she has performed as a soloist with orchestras in Germany, the United States, and South Korea and as a chamber musician at numerous music festivals, including the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Chamber Music at the Banff Centre, Aspen Music Festival, and the Marlboro Music Festival.
She received her bachelor’s from Curtis in 2005, having studied both violin and viola, and a master’s degree from the New England Conservatory, where she double majored in violin and viola. Ms. Lee will join the chamber music faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music in fall 2023.
Camden Shaw is the cellist of the Dover Quartet, the Penelope P. Watkins Ensemble in Residence at the Curtis Institute of Music. He has appeared with the ensemble in performances all over the world to great acclaim. Mr. Shaw has collaborated in chamber music with such renowned artists as Daniel Hope, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, and the late Leon Fleischer, and maintains an active career as a soloist. Highlights from recent seasons include a performance of Beethoven’s Triple Concerto, Op. 56 with the Artosphere Festival Orchestra, where Shaw also holds the principal chair; and the release of his solo album by Unipheye Music, which was met with critical praise.
Mr. Shaw graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music in 2010, where he studied with Peter Wiley. Other major teachers include Norman Fischer, David Finckel, and Steven Isserlis. He performs on an instrument made in 2010 by Frank Ravatin.
Mr. Shaw joined the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music in 2020. He also teaches at Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music.
