Ying Quartet

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The Ying Quartet is an American string quartet formed in 1992 by the Ying siblings from Chicago. The Quartet began performing in the farm town of Jesup, Iowa (population 2000) as the first artists involved in the National Endowment for the Arts Chamber Music Rural Residencies Program. The members of the quartet are Timothy and Janet Ying (violins), Phillip Ying (viola), and David Ying (cello).

While the Ying Quartet was in Jesup, it won the 1993 Naumburg Chamber Music Award. In the years since, the Yings have performed in many major American cities; at numerous festivals including Tanglewood, Aspen and San Miguel; and in Europe, Canada, Mexico, Australia, Japan and Taiwan. The Yings have played in diverse settings including Carnegie Hall, the White House, hospitals and juvenile prisons. The EMI Classics recording of works by Osvaldo Golijov on which the Ying Quartet appeared with the St. Lawrence Quartet was nominated for a 2003 Grammy Award.

In 1999 the Quartet introduced a commissioning project supported by the Institute for American Music designed to produce a distinctively American string quartet repertoire. The project has introduced new quartets by Michael Torke, Kevin Puts, Carter Pann, Paquito D’Rivera, Chen Yi, Daniel Kellogg, Augusta Read Thomas, Ned Rorem, Jennifer Higdon and Bernard Rands. With Musical Dim Sum, the Yings have extended their repertoire while celebrating their own cultural heritage by including a selection of short works by Chinese American composers in the framework of a traditional concert.

The Ying Quartet teaches actively. It is the quartet in residence at the Eastman School of Music of the University of Rochester and frequently teaches at the Bowdoin International Music Festival in Brunswick, Maine.